NYMPIIALINAE : EUPIIYDRYAS PHAETON. 697 



Food plant. The proper food plant of the caterpillar is the snake 

 head, Chclone glabra Linn. It is, however, found on other Scrophular- 

 iaceae, such as Mimulus ringens Linn. (Troxley) and Gerardia pedicu- 

 laria Linn. (Edwards) ; it is also especially fond of Lonicera ciliata ]Muhl. , 

 particularly in the spring, and, according to Glover, occurs on Virburnum 

 dentatum, these two last plants being Caprifoliaceae. In confinement it has 

 been raised on other species of Lonicera and on plantain (Miss Morton, 

 Bruce), the latter a plant allied to the Scrophulariaceae, and Mr. Trouvelot 

 assures me that it will then eat black currant, but in this I suspect he is mis- 

 taken. It has also been observed upon other plants, such as i\ster, Corylus, 

 barberry (Berberis) , and even on ferns, grasses and flags. So, too, Messrs. 

 Edwards and Mead have found its nest on Solidago, Vernonia, Clematis 

 and Rubus ; but in none of these cases ivas the insect feeding, and as 

 all these plants were growing in the immediate vicinity of Chelone, we 

 may lay the presence of the caterpillar to the account of its roving disposi- 

 tion. In this Avay we may explain the mistaken statement of Mr. Bruce 

 (Papilio, i : 188) that the caterpillars found by him "fed on almost any 

 low plant or shrub, many of them on Typha latifolia ( !), but they appeared 

 to prefer Lonicera." The specimen I took on the barberry changed to 

 chrysalis the following day and had, undoubtedly, sought the plant only 

 for transformation. Mr. Edwards writing in 1884 says that Actinomeris 

 is one of the food plants, but does not include it in his list of the food 

 plants in 1885. In the White Mountains I found the hibernating larvae 

 exclusively on Lonicera in the spring. 



Habits of the caterpillar. The hatching caterpillar eats an opening 

 around the summit of the egg , sometimes leaving the outer portion of the 

 ribs until the last ; the lid thus formed is thrust off, and the caterpillar, 

 emerging, partially devours the deserted shell ; it then moves briskly 

 about with its companions, and before eating they prepare a small web 

 upon the under surface of the leaf; this web is very thin and covers little 

 more than a spot sufficiently large for feeding. They eat the parenchyma 

 only, and the opposite upper surface turns black in consequence. They 

 feed in rows, those of each row simultaneously moving the head and ante- 

 rior part of the body from side to side ; they frequently wander uneasily 

 and rapidly from the web, but always return again ; indeed they retain 

 this restless habit throughout life, and according to Mr. Emery, to whom 

 I am indebted for most of these facts,* occur more frequently off than on 

 the snake head. After the first moult they eat holes in the side of the 



•These observations were not made with- deep in mud and ice-cold water, with a driz. 



out difficulty. Mr. Emery writes enthusias- zliug rain to cheer me on; but I found the 



tically of his first discovery after three fruit- animals and forgot the wet feet, the wet back, 



less expeditious :— " At noon I took the cars to the four miles between me and Ilolyoke, In 



Holyoke and walked four miles over the hills the satisfaction of having accomplished my 



to the swamp, spent an hour wading ankle- object." 



