NYMl'lIALIXAE: VANESSA ATALANTA. 451 



legs on a line with the seeond i)air of prologs. The chrvsalici stage gen- 

 erally hustf* ahout ten days. 



Life history. l>oth in Kniope and New England there are two hroods 

 ot" this inseet, althongh sonic of the chrysalids of the later brood do not 

 diselose their inmates until spi'ing, when the hii)ernating butterflies and 

 those from wintering pupae mingle on the wing and deposit their eggs, so 

 far as kuow'n, simultaneously. The wintering imago is one of the last oi' 

 hibernating butterflies to make its appearance in spring, being seldom 

 seen before the beginning of the second week in May (though Mr. Grote 

 says he has seen them in February on Staten Island) ; and since individ- 

 uals emerging from wintering chrysalids often appear by the last week in 

 the same month, always as soon as the first week in June, though still 

 emerging until the middle of the month, battered and brilliant specimens 

 from the same brood of chrysalids may be seen flying in company. Both 

 apparently dejiosit their eggs at the same time, and the larvae may be 

 found in xarious stages of development through nearly the whole of June 

 and the first half of July ; the chrysalids hang for about ten days * and 

 the butterflies aj)[)ear l)y the first days of July and continue to emerge 

 from the chrysalis throughout the month ; the eggs are laid at once and 

 another brood of caterpillars may be found between the middle (or even 

 at the end of the first week) of July and the last of August; the 

 butterflies ap})ear the very last of August and early in September, and fly 

 throughout this month and even later, though in gradually diminishing 

 numbers ; they are among the last of our hibernating butterflies to seek 

 their winter quarters, and, as stated above, some of the chrysalids of this 

 autumn brood do not disclose the butterfly before the ensuing spring. 



Mr. H. T. Stainton tells me that in England atalanta delays its hiber- 

 nation until nearly December, and does not make its appearance again 

 until June, which is as in Xew England : while on the northern shores of 

 the Mediterranean it never hibernates, properly speaking, as the cold is 

 never strongr enoug-h in the winter months to induce it to do so. 



In our southern states there is undoubtedly some variation from this 

 history, for there the Initterfly is at least triple-brooded. Mr. Edwards 

 says that in \Vest Virginia "there are three broods of the larvae, the 

 first in May and early June, the second in July and early August, the third 

 late in September." (loc. cit.) According to Dr. Chapman's observations 

 in Appalachicola, Fla,, the wintering chrysalids disclose their butter- 

 flies toward the end of April, and the last brood of the season appears 

 early in November, between which months there is certainly time for even 

 more broods than two. Further south still, pretty fresh specimens, 

 which could hardly have wintered, were obtained by Dr. Palmer at Indian 

 River the last of March. In these warmer latitudes, as in southern 

 * Sei)i> says of thi> brood in Europe that it haiig> for iibout tbroo weeks. 



