NYMPHALINAE: BASILARCIITA ASTYANAX. 287 



August ; siicli at least is the history as it appears from the few data found 

 among the notes of Dr. C'hapman, Ahhot and Gosse. 



Habits, flight, etc. The ])utterfly is addicted to roads, especially 

 such as are partially shaded, to forest paths, and warm sandy places bor- 

 dering on woods, thus combining to a certain degree the habits of archip- 

 pus and arthemis ; "secluded nooks in the margins of woodlands," says 

 Maynard. INIore than either of its New England congeners, it is extraor- 

 dinarily attracted by dung, the juices of which would seem to afford a 

 strange satisfaction to so magnificent a butterfly. Except while eating, it 

 is shy and difficult to secure. Dodge relates (Can. ent., vi : 115), that 

 "upon more than one occasion, by wetting my fingers with ap])le juice, 

 and holding them near an ursula as it sat upon a leaf above me, I have 

 induced it to leave its perch and alight on my hand, where it would remain 

 until the last drop was sucked up." Harris notices that it is persecuted by 

 Papilio polyxenes. Its fliglit is similar to that of the preceding species 

 but still more lofty and grand, more leisurely and sweeping, or, as Maynard 

 characterizes it, "strong" and "well-assured." When at rest in the 

 shade the wings are placed back to back, the body usually raised at an 

 angle of about 15° to 20°, and the antennae, extended in the same plane 

 with the body, are spread at an angle of about 55°, being about 16 mm. 

 apart at the tip : viewed from above, the antennae are curved a very little 

 in the middle. 



Mimicry. In remarks under the genus I have quoted Doubleday's 

 comment on the "singularly strong analogy" which the colors of this but- 

 terfly have to those of Laertias philenor, and others have mentioned it as 

 a possible case of mimicry. Apart even from the very different form of 

 the wings in these two species, their markings do not seem to me to have 

 any striking resemblance, and I should be loth to look on it as anything 

 but the weakest possible form of mimicry, a possible first stage toward it. 

 But on the other hand there is certainly a very surprising resemblance 

 between the females of Basilarchia astyanax and Semnopsyche diana, and 

 in this case there can be no doubt that the latter is the mimicker, since it 

 obtains its resemblance by departing from the ground color not only of 

 the opposite sex, but that prevailing in both sexes in the whole tribe of 

 Argynnidi to which it belongs. ^Moreover, B. astyanax occurs wherever 

 S. diana is found. 



Experiments "with cold. Mr. Edwards "placed one chrysalis at four 

 hours old on the ice and kept it there thirteen [ ?] days. From this came 

 a large female after nine days, or at the period usual for this species. This 

 shows some peculiarities which may or may not have been owing to the 

 exposure. . . . The black band [preceding the submarginal spots on hind 

 wing] is narrowed to one-half that of any other in my collection, and 

 instead of being uninterrupted, it is crossed next costal margin by three of 



