276 THE BUTTERFLIES OF NEW ENGLAND. 



(speaking in this paragraph of the hxtitnde of Boston only), generally 

 take just about one month at this season of the year, and the second 

 brood of bvitterflies makes its appearance in Massachusetts, after about ten 

 (seven to ten) days in chrysalis* by about the middle of July — sometimes 

 as early as the 10th of the month, flying, therefore, for a fortnight or more 

 in company with many individuals of the first brood, and continuing to 

 emerge from the clnysalis during the whole of July, and certainly a part 

 of Auo-ust. The first and second brood commingling, and the females of 

 the second being ready to lay their eggs by the time the females of the 

 first have closed their labors, the butterfly may be found in almost or quite 

 every stage throughout July and August. This renders the precise appear- 

 ance of a third brood uncertain ; that there is such a brood, the sight of 

 plenty of fresh females laying their first eggs (as proved by their abund- 

 ance in the abdomen) at the very end of August and early in September, 

 abundantly shoAvs ; for if the tliird brood, undergoing its transformations 

 in the hottest season, follows only as rapidly on the second, as the second 

 on the first, the first butterflies of this brood should appear early in August 

 and be ready to lay eggs shortly after the middle of the month ; good 

 specimens fit for the cabinet may still be obtained in the second week in 

 September, and egg-laying continues at least into the third week and 

 probably throughout the month. The females will sometimes be found 

 flying with only tattered remnants of wings (61: 25). 



In the White Mountain district, the second brood is not usually seen 

 until near the end of July ; and thereafter, as in the south, fresh specimens 

 may be found the rest of the season, or until at least the middle of August. 

 The earliest butterflies of this brood may in some years be able to lay eggs 

 by the first week in August, and a third brood, or a fragment of it, a sup- 

 plementary brood, appear early in September ; whether there would then 

 be time for the development of the eggs wdthin and without the body of the 

 parent, and the growth of the larva past its first moult (the latter only a 

 couple of days), may perhaps l)e questioned, but in favorable seasons and 

 in protected localities in the lower levels it seems in no way impossible. 

 Butterflies may be found throughout September, including, I believe, a 

 certain number of fresh specimens, though my notes are not suflficiently 

 explicit on this point. I have found plenty of eggs and caterpillars in their 

 earliest stages at Plymouth on September 7 . 



In the south the number of broods must be greater, but our data are 

 very meagre ; they fly as early as the latter half of jNIarch, and become 

 numerous early in April about Appalachicola (Chapman). They are 

 found again in the latter half of May and early in June, and there must 

 be at least three broods after that. Abbot raised one from chrysalis on 



*Mr. Billings, of Ottawa, says lie has had alids of other butterflies, there may have been 

 speeiineiis in chrysalis for only five days, but something peculiar about his breeding cage, 

 as he records equally brief periods for chrys- See also under Aglais milberti. 



