598 THE butterflip:s of neav England. 



over the North American continent, where east of the Mississippi it occu- 

 pies most of the Alleghanian and Canadian faunas. It is found as far 

 east as Cape Breton (Thaxter) and Nova Scotia, where it is one of the 

 commonest butterflies (Jones) ; it is abundant along the Athmtic slope as 

 far south as Maryland (Uhler), and has been taken in the Catawba Val- 

 ley, N. Car. (Bean, teste Uhler), though it does not occur on the Kanawha, 

 W. Va. (Edwards). It occurs in northern but not in southern Illinois.* 

 Westward it has been found as far as Beloit, Wise. (Chamberlain, Kirt- 

 land), Iowa, where it does not seem to be very common, though wide- 

 spread (Parker, Putnam, Osborn) and even Montana (Edwards) and 

 the Middle Park of Colorado (Mead). Boisduval and on his testimony, 

 W. H. Edwards and Scudder, all record it from California, but no doubt 

 erroneously ; Henry Edwards says it does not occur either in California or 

 Oreo-on, but Strecker wives it from the " southern iiart of British Colum- 

 bia." In the north it is apparently found all over the settled parts of Can- 

 ada proper, extending alsQ to both shores of the lower St. Lawrence 

 (D'Urban, Godbout), to Martin's Falls (Brit. Mus.), Hudson Bay 

 (Weir), to Sault St. Marie, Lake Superior (Bethune), and Nepigon 

 on its north shore (Fletcher). Strangely, it has not been reported at all 

 from the great lake region of British America, north of 50°, where one 

 would expect to find it from its presence in British Columbia, but it must 

 be found there as it occurs at Fort Edmonton on the Saskatchewan 

 (Geddes), and varying a little from the type, abundantly even at Sitka, 

 Alaska. 



It is found in nearly equal abundance throughout New England. 



Oviposition. The eggs are laid upon the upper surface of violet leaves 

 as well as on the stems, and in freedom I have seen them laid on slender 

 blades of grass in the neighborhood of violets. They hatch in six or 

 seven days, though they sometimes take longer. Some laid at Nepigon, 

 Lake Superior, before July 11, hatched in Massachusetts, where they 

 were brought on the 14th, between July 21 and 23, but I have not known 

 them to be delayed so long when laid with us excepting late in the season 

 when a fortnight is sometimes required. I have received living specimens 

 of the eggs from Messrs. C. E. Hamlin, P. S. Sprague, C. P. Whitney 

 and C. E. Emery. 



Food and habits of caterpillar. The caterpillar seems to feed 

 indiscriminately upon all Avild or cultivated Violaceae. At eclosion it 

 eats its way out of the upper half of the shell but seldom devours the 

 rest. By day it lies concealed upon a violet stalk or the under surface 

 of a leaf, feeding only by night. When young it eats in little })atches 



* Say remarks that it oecurs as far south as GuiuUach has not found it in the latter island, 



Florida, but this is certainly not true. Rois- and its presence in any of the Antilles is in 



duval also states that is found in "some of the the highest degree improbable. 

 Antilles" and Lucas records it from Cuba, but 



