EUPLOEINAE: ANOSIA PLEXIPPUS. 737 



or the journej' ended, a few hours would have brought them to tlie soa (Waste-land 

 wanderings, 79-80). 



The butterfly was again abundant and seen in swarms in New England 

 last autumn (1^^88), although exceptionally scarce in the spring of the 

 same year. Miss Harrington relates that while walking from the woods 

 to the seashore at Magnolia, Mass., shortly before 4 p. m., on August 29, 

 1888, she and her companions noticed a great many of these butterflies 

 " flying about in a restless way, but mostly toward the wood ; we stepped 

 in from the road a few feet, and there on the oak trees were swarms of 

 them. Some of the branches were literally covered with them ; having 

 once lighted they seemed quiet, but thousands, it seemed to us, were still 

 flying about." The butterflies were flying in a westerly direction, possibly 

 a little south of w^est, with a westerly breeze, the sky being overcast and 

 the day cool. A fisherman in the vicinity said they had swarmed on the 

 young shoots of the willows so as to damage them not a little. Four 

 days later than this, at Hampton, N. H., a little north of IVIagnolia, I 

 observed the passage of this butterfly toward the south, already described, 

 but discovered no sign of them in the neighboring woods I visited for 

 the purpose. 



Oviposition. The early eggs are usually laid near the base of the mid- 

 rib of either surface of the terminal or next to the terminal leaves of the 

 young plant while they are still erect or nearly erect. The under surface 

 seems to be preferred. Generally but one egg will be found on a leaf, 

 and not often more than two or three on a plant. Later they are also laid 

 upon the pedicel of the flower. The egg hatches in four days or even 

 slightly less, but is sometimes delayed so as not to emerge for five days or 

 more. 



Food plants. The caterpillar feeds upon different species of Asclepias, 

 although "it shows a wonderful dislike," Mr. Riley remarks, "to the poke 

 milk w^eed (A. phytolaccoides Pursh) ; . . . larvae furnished with this plant 

 would \vander about their breeding cages day after day, and would eventu- 

 ally die rather than touch it" ; in the north it generally appears to confine 

 itself to A. cornuti Dec, but has been found on A. purpurascens Linn, 

 and A. incarnata Linn. ; in the south and in Missouri, it also feeds on the 

 butterfly weed, A. tuberosa Linn., A. amplexicaulisMichx., A. tomentosa 

 Ell., and A. curassavica Linn, and has been taken in Cuba by Dr. 

 Gundlach on A. nivea Linn. It has been discovered, too, on the neigh- 

 boring genus Apocynum — A. androsaemifolium Linn. (Saunders), and 

 according to Coquillet feeds also on Acerates. 



Habits of the caterpillar. On escaping from the egg, the caterpillar 

 completely de\ours the shell and then attacks the leaf, eating a slender hole 

 often entirely through it, and Avhen it has done feeding retires to the con- 

 cealed side of the leaf; if it is still erect, to the inner, that is the upper, 



93 



