NYMPHALINAE: EUPIIYDRYAS PHAETON. 701 



ill their fourth stage in the latter })art of August or early in September 

 begin to hibernate.* They arouse with the first breath of spring and in 

 continued ffood weather a week of feedinjj on the succulent leaves of the 

 young Lonicera or Chelonc must be sufficient to mature them. 



The statement in Drury's Exotic entoniology that this butterfly is 

 "taken in June and September, whence probably two broods a year," is 

 (piitc erroneous. It is never or very rarely taken after the first of August. 

 1 say very rarely, for it is not impossible that an occasional individual 

 chrysalis may foil to give forth its inmate until an exceptionally late 

 period. Two late appearances are on record. Once when Mr. Billings 

 of Ottawa, Canada, saw one flying in August or September ; and again 

 when Dr. Levette saw one near Galena, 111., during the second week in 

 August ; perhaps in Drury's statement we have the ghost of a third. 



Habits of the butterfly. The haunts of this insect have been already 

 discussed in treatino; of its localization. Its flioht is rather slow and 

 heavy, ordinarily about two feet from the ground. It is fond of alighting 

 to suck the juices of red clover and white weed, but prefers generally the 

 leaves of shrubs or of ferns or even the ground ; when at rest upon a ver- 

 tical surface, the wings are shut and the costal borders of the fore and 

 hind wings are brought in contact ; the antennae are parallel at the base, 

 but diverge beyond at an angle of from 50° to 55°, their tips being 10 mm. 

 apart : they are raised so as to be nearly parallel with the costal borders 

 of the wings. 



According to Mr. Edwards, the butterflies are not touched by birds 

 "probably having some quality obnoxious to smell or taste, and the cater- 

 pillars seejn to have a similar immunity." Caterpillars as spinous as 

 these are rarely attacked, and it would seem as if so sluggish a buttei'fly 

 would soon have been exterminated by birds, did it not possess some ob- 

 noxious character, for it is, I think, the most sluggish butterfly we have. 



Parasites. Yet the caterpillar, notwithstanding the colors which may 

 warn off intruding birds, is subject to other foes, for it is attacked by large 

 numbers of an unknown pteromalid fly which does not destroy its victim 

 until the latter has changed to a chrysalis ; in this chrysalis the parasites 

 remain the greater part of the year, sometimes appearing on the ^vino- as 

 late as the last of June ; all chrysalids which hang through the winter are 

 parasitized. Hence it is possible that the parasite requires tAvo years to 

 complete its transformation, passing one winter in the chrysalis of its vic- 

 tim, the next in the young larvae of the succeeding brood of butterflies. 



It was perhaps this foe the young larvae were fearing which Mr. Ed- 

 wards once saw "in a state of great agitation . . . running about wildly 

 and throwing their heads and two-thirds the body in a jerking way from 



*Mr. Holmes Hinckley is very sure that after the second week of August and is "in- 

 caterpillars which he observed at the WTiite clined to believe they stopped eating a week 

 Mountains, both indoors and out, ate nothing earlier.'' See also Psyche, v : 54. 



