272 THE BUTTERFLIES OF NEW ENGLAND. 



know. The northernmost localities from which it has been reported are 

 Crow's Nest and Calgary, N. AV. T. (Geddes) and Moose, Hudson 

 Bay, one specimen (Weir). Edwards says it reaches latitude 52°. East- 

 w^ard it has been taken at Ottawa (Billings, Fletcher), Montreal (Caul- 

 field), on the St. Lawrence 135 miles above Quebec (Bowles) and in 

 Nova Scotia (Jones). 



Within New England it occurs abundantly in the south, more sparingly 

 in the north, although found in the very heart of the White Mountains. 

 The northernmost points from which specimens are recorded are Mount 

 Desert Island (Scudder), Orono (Fernald), Waterville (Hamlin), Hallo- 

 well (Miss Wadsworth) and Norway, Me. (Smith) ; Franconia, Wing 

 Road and the Glen, White Mountains, N. H. (Morrison, Scudder), 

 Sudbury (Scudder) and Stowe, Vt. (Miss Soule). 



Haunts. The butterfly is found in open country in fields and meadows, 

 especially in low grounds, and hovers fondly over blossoms of the golden 

 rod (Solidago). In Iowa, Mr. Allen found it in open groves. 



Oviposition. The female always chooses the terminal leaves of a twig 

 for the deposit of her eggs, and even the tip of the leaf. They are usually 

 laid on the upper surface, and it is very rare to find more than a single egg 

 on a leaf, though Riley records an instance of three together and says that 

 he has found them on both sides of the tip of the leaf, base to base ; I 

 have never seen such a case, and with hardly an exception have found 

 them laid singly, and in nearly nine cases out of ten, on the u})per side at 

 the very extremity ; out of twenty-two collected in one day, five w^ere 

 found on the lower, the others on the upper surface. Miss Soule records 

 (Psyche v: 14), a similar case of more than one egg to a leaf: "One 

 leaf had four eggs ; one at the tip, two on one edge near the tip, and one 

 on the other edge near the tip. Another leaf had two ; one on the tip, 

 the other near it. The third leaf had three irregularly placed near the 

 tip." All these, w^ith the possible exception of one of the first four, Miss 

 Soule saw laid. Afterwards four eggs were found on a willow leaf, two on 

 each side of the tip. The butterfly was exceptionally abundant. 



Specimens have been received by me from Misses Guild and Murtfeldt. 

 The duration of the egg varies fi'om four to eight days. Of two laid 

 within five minutes of each other on August 4th at noon, one hatched at 

 nine o'clock on the 8th, the other in the night of the lOth-llth. All of 

 the eggs seen laid by INIiss Soule, hatched within twenty-four hours of 

 each otlier. 



Food plant. Salicaceae form the favorite food of this caterpillar. 

 Mr. Lintner writes that he has taken it on six or eight species of Salix ; 

 among the plants of this family upon which it lives are golden willow, 

 black willow (S. nigra Marsh.), the long-beaked willow (S. livida, var. 

 occidentalis), and silky leaved willow (S. sericea Marsh. ) . Of Populus, 



