314 THE buttj:rflies of new en(jlaxi). 



Canadian fauna, but extends north to a great distance, being foiuid tlirough 

 tlie whole interior of the continent from ocean to ocean. Another probably 

 has nearly as extensive a range, but has only been found at a few points 

 within it ; two others belong properly to the Alleghanian fainia, though one 

 extends further north and not so far south as the other ; a sixth is a Pacific 

 coast species found once or twice near our northern l)orders ; nearly all 

 these forms meet in central New England, and but one other genus of 

 butterflies is better endowed with New England species. 



Among our native Nymphalidaethe l)utterflies of this genus may be known 

 almost at a glance by their greatly angulated and excised wings. They are 

 mostly of moderate size and above are all tawny colored, heavily spotted and 

 broadly bordered, especially the hind wings, with black, and frequently 

 edged with a gray bloom ; the markings on the upper wings consist mainly 

 of two bars depending from the costal margin, one at the tip of the cell, the 

 other mid-way between it and the apex, and of a series of five or six spots 

 arranged in a line bent at right angles, the limbs nearly equal, one crossing 

 the middle of the basal half of the wing, the other extending across the 

 lower interspaces toward the tip ; the markings on the hind wing are com- 

 posed principally of irregularly arranged blotches lying rather within the 

 middle of the wing. Beneath, both wings are somewhat similarly mar- 

 bled and irrorate with dark fuscous on a more or less ashy brown ground, 

 the basal half darker and limited by a clearly defined, continuous, but very 

 irregular border ; there are one or more rows of small greenish or bluish 

 spots, and near the middle of the outer half a sinuate and bent series of 

 black dots, often enclosed in dark clouds which sometimes coalesce and 

 form a band ; the greater part of the wings is often suflfused by a more or 

 less glaucous bloom, and in addition there is a silvery mark like a comma 

 or semicolon in the centre of the hind wings ; these have also a short tail at 

 the extremity of the upper median nervule. The characters drawn from 

 the legs are in many respects erroneously given by Doubleday. 



Most of the species are double-brooded, the butterflies appearing in July 

 and sometimes in September, those of the last brood hibernating ; the 

 eggs hatch in four or five days, and the chrysalis state lasts from one to two 

 weeks, although in the autumn brood sometimes prolonged to four. The 

 eggs are laid singly (or occasionally in chains, one above the other), and 

 the caterpillars are solitary. In leaving the egg, they do not devour it, 

 but, as a correspondent of Mr. Edwards writes, they "scramble through 

 their scuttles in hot haste, totally regardless as to who may take posses- 

 sion of their late tenements, leaving whole hamlets to prove their presence 

 in the vicinity" (Can. ent., xiv : 207). They feed almost exclusively on 

 Urticaceae and Grossulaceae, and usually live on the under surfaces of the 

 leaves, sometimes partially concealing themselves by drawing together 

 with silken threads the outer edges. The butterflies have a quick, ner- 



