702 THE BUTTERFLIES OF NEW ENGLAND. 



rio-ht to left, all in the same manner and like so many automata. The 

 cause of the alarm seemed to be a small crimson ichneumon fly . . . which 

 alighted on one of the leaves" near by. 



Endurance. Mr. Edwards regards the caterpillars as very tenacious 

 of life, as some that had undergone a submersion in water of five hours 

 duration revived and passed successfully through their transformations. 

 But he points out one case of their entire extermination in one locality by 

 the long continued submersion of the swamp in which the caterpillars lived, 

 by a flood in the Kanawha River. For six years not a phaeton was to 

 be found there, so he deliberately restocked it by turning loose in it some 

 two dozen butterflies he had reared, and his experiment was an immediate 

 success. The butterfly itself is also in a sullen, passive way more endur- 

 ino- than most species as is proved by its requiring more violent means to 

 extinguish life. 



Mr. Edwards has also experimented with the action of cold on thechry- 

 salids, thirty-nine of them having been placed on ice at various periods 

 from two to thirty-four hours after pupation and exposed for from ten to 

 twenty-seven days. No result except a retardation in the emergence of 

 the butterfly followed, the length of the chrysalis stage after removal from 

 the ice being the same as after pupation normally. But no suflfusion or 

 other variation in the imago was induced. 



Desiderata. Though our knowledge of this insect is comparatively 

 complete, there are still some obscure points. Are all the eggs of one 

 butterfly normally laid in a single patch ? Are there two spring moultings 

 in the south and only one in the north? What meaning shall be attached 

 to the occasional appearance of single butterflies on the wing, long after 

 the normal period? Perhaps experimentation with cold on caterpillars or 

 chrysalis may throw light on this point. What is the cause of the locali- 

 zation of the butterfly ? Is it simply connected with the stations of its 

 food plant, or is it actually absent from places where it might be expected 

 and where Chelone and Lonicera are abundant ? The parasite needs to be 

 determined and the whole story of the relation of the parasite to the but- 

 terfly needs clearing up ; a fuller description of the flight of the butter- 

 fly and more information concerning its western range are desirable. 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.-EUPHYDBYAS PHAETON. 



