258 THE BUTTERFLIES OF NEW ENGLAND. 



stage is passed, and the caterpillar no longer frequents the perch, which 

 has become too weak for its weight ; it now prefers the footstalk of leaves 

 or twigs. 



But if the proper season has now arrived, it begins by this time to con- 

 struct its winter quarters, of which Edwards has in the same place given 

 a very full account, upon which I will draw freely. In most cases the 

 caterpillar finds that the bit of leaf on which it is then resting will answer 

 its purposes and is already of the proper shape and size, but not infre- 

 quently it attacks a new leaf, which it does by cutting channels down the 

 lobes very much as we should use a pair of scissors, to remove the superflu- 

 ous portions, leaving finally a fiddle-shaped piece at the base. This is 

 then smeared with silk on the upper surface, the edges brought as nearly 

 together as possible, the interstices thoroughly covered with silk, and the 

 cylinder resulting is found exactly to fit the caterpillar's body, now 

 shrunken somewhat from its severe labors ; the leaf stalk is attached 

 very firmly to the stem by threads passing very many times entirely around 

 it, and the hibernaculum is ready for occupancy. 



The caterpillars are not only grotesque in appearance, but in habit ; 

 they move about with little starts, very ludicrous to observe ; they often 

 rest, when sulking, with their front parts strongly arched, the front of the 

 head resting on the leaf, the tips of the thoracic tubercles just touching the 

 same, and the tail aloft ; at other times they rest the side of the head on 

 the leaf, or by the side of the stem on which they are resting, as if weary 

 of this world. 



In order to call attention to points in the history of our own species 

 which resemble the histories and habits of the allied European genera of 

 this group, I will add a brief notice of them. Gartner writes of Nymphalis 

 aceris (Stett. entom. zeit., xxi : 296-7) : — 



As soon as it leaves the egg, it begins to eat tlirongli tlie leaf [of Oronus vernus] 

 laterally as far as the midrib, which, together with the tip of the leaf, it leaves 

 untonched ; at its next meal it attacks the opposite side of the leaf, and so on alter- 

 nately, gradually approaching the base ; after each meal it crawls over the untouched 

 midrib to the very tip of the leaf, where it takes a siesta, its head directed outward ; 

 and thus it continues through three stages. After the third moult, hoAvever, it changes 

 altogether both its resting place and manner of life ; it now attacks the leaf at the 

 base, no longer eating toward the midrib in regular furrows, but biting out great mor- 

 sels, peneti'ating deep down on both sides, so that the leaf is weakened and hangs 

 downward, held in place by only a few filaments, or by the threads of silk spun by the 

 caterpillar; it then quits this leaf for another, Avhich it eats in the same manner, 

 until at last the tree is furnished only with dangling dead leaves, in one of which the 

 caterpillar hibernates. These wintering larvae give out butterflies in the spring and 

 the eggs laid by them hatch in eight days ; in fifteen or twenty days the larvae are all 

 groAvn, but less than half change to chrysalids and disclose butterflies in August; the 

 others stop eating and hibernate together with the larvae produced from eggs laid by 

 the August butterflies ; and in the following spring both produce butterflies at the 

 same time ! 



