568 THE BUTTERFLIES OF NEW ENGLAND. 



(Weir), Lake of the Woods (Dawson), Sault St. Marie, Lake Superior 

 "abundant" (Bethune), London, Ontario "abundant" (Saunders), 

 Ottawa common (Fletcher), Quebec (Bowles, etc.) and at various points 

 on and about the lower St. Lawrence (Bell). It was once taken in 

 Upton Wood near Leamington, Warwickshire, England, in 1833. "How 

 it came from the 'Far West' is now an undiscoverable mystery" (Morris). 



In New England it is one of our commonest butterflies, but is wholly 

 absent from the White Mountain region where it is replaced by A. atlan- 

 tis. There are no means of judging of its abundance in northern Maine, 

 but probably it is less common than A. atlantis. 



Food plant and habits of larva. Mr. D. W. Beadle of Canada 

 was the first to rear this insect, and according to him it feeds nightly upon 

 all kinds of wild violet, and during the day lies concealed on the ground 

 beneath chips and stones. The eggs are laid in the autumn and hatch in 

 about a fortnight. The young larva devours its egg shell and then moves 

 acti^-ely about as if quite equal to finding suitable winter quarters, utterly 

 declining further food, even though placed upon a growing plant, for it 

 hibernates at this age. In the spring its growth is slow, according to 

 Mr. Edwards, and it is active only on sunny days, neither feeding nor 

 moving in cold or cloudy weather. He says of them : — "After remaining 

 motionless for hours, they would suddenly arouse and start oflT in extreme 

 haste, running all about the enclosure [in which they were kept], and on 

 reaching the leaves would feed ravenously, and then return to their resting 

 place. Not unfrequently they were extended on the stones or the damp 

 earth as if for coolness." 



The dim vision probably possessed by caterpillars is well exemplified by 

 an account Mr. Edwards gives of this species. He had the creatures under 

 a guaze bag on violets around which were stuck some sticks. 



On oue occasion I liappeued to be at hand when an aphrodite suddenly started down 

 the side of the bag to disappear below, and presently emerge on one of the upright 

 sticks. This it ran over and about, and from a point on the side of it towards the 

 plant made great eflbrts to reach oue of the stems, which was at something more than 

 an inch distant from the sticlc. Several times the caterpillar stretched itself out till it 

 was nearly twice its natural length, holding to the stick by its anal and last pair of 

 ventral claspers and moving its head and body from side to side to feel for the plant. 

 But the attempts were in vain. Then it remounted the stick, and reached out in a 

 similar manner from the top in directions where were no leaves, till at last it turned 

 right again, and by an effort more violent than usual, seized a stem by its jaws and first 

 pair of legs, and holding by them dropped its body from the stick and climbed to the 

 leaf. There was evidently a sense of direction in the first instance, from the descent 

 of the bag to tlie reaching the stick, tliough not of sight, as the stick was fixed at the 

 base of the plant, and the latter was as easily reached as the former. And Avhen on 

 the stick, there was a sense that the leaves were near, without a certainty of the pre- 

 cise locality. (Butt. N. Amer., II.) 



Life history. The history of this butterfly in New England is similar 

 to that of the preceding butterfly, since it is single-brooded and hibernates 



