814 THE BUTTERFLIES OF XEW ENGLAIfD. 



figured by him as belonging to tliis insect "feeds on tiie flower figui'ed, 

 oak, etc." The flower is Eupatorium coelestinum Linn., a composite plant, 

 and a hio-hly improbable food plant for such an insect, which has since liecu 

 found in several instances upon wild cherry, and reared by ^Nlr. Saunders 

 on plum leaves, which the caterpillar seemed to prefer to cherry. It is far 

 more probable that its food plants will be found limited to Kosaccac and 

 perhaps Cupuliferae. 



In leaving the egg the caterpillar eats a circular hole through the top, 

 large enough to crawl out easily, and at once makes its way to the half- 

 opened leaves close at hand ; here it eats circular or oblong holes on either 

 surface of the leaf, having a larger diameter of about one millimetre, down 

 to the opposite membrane of the leaf, wliich it does not pierce. The 

 under surface of the leaf is usually chosen, as indeed is almost necessary, 

 as it hatches at a time when the leaves are not expanded or only expanded 

 a little, and in the first instance still remain with their normally upper 

 halves closely appressed. Later, while still in its first stage, and the 

 leaves have opened, the caterpillar occasionally resorts to the upper sur- 

 face, and now, on whichever surface, ploughs short, irregular, jagged 

 tracks through the parenchyma, down to the membrane, and even occa- 

 sionally at the very end of this stage, completely through the leaf. This 

 stage occupies about ten days, and is passed entirely upon the leaf it first 

 attacks. It should be noted that the hairs of the under side of the wild 

 cherry leaf closely resemble the bristles of its own body at this stage. 



When about to moult for the first time, it bites away these hairs over a 

 space large enough for it to get its whole body down to the floor of the 

 leaf itself, and there sits and mopes till the time comes. 



On disturbing a caterpillar past the first moult, it will thrust its head 

 out to its fullest extent, attach a thread to the surface, and then, arching 

 its body, let go all hold by legs or prolegs, and hang by the thread it has 

 spun. By degrees it then lowers itself by extending the thread until it 

 reaches the ground, where it remains motionless for a time, and then 

 crawls away. 



Life history. The butterfly passes the winter in the egg state. The 

 eggs hatch just as the foliage of the wild cherry begins to open, about 

 the middle of May. It does not reach maturity before the last of June, 

 remains in the chrysalis twelve days, and first emerges from the chrysalis 

 shortly before the middle of July. The period of its earliest abundance 

 is the last of July and the first of August, the advent of the female being, 

 it would seem, usually delayed until the 20th or 25th of July, although 

 Mr. Saunders reared one as early as the 13th. It continues upon the 

 wing until nearly the last of August, and doubtless lays its eggs through- 

 out this montli, and these remain unhatched until the following spring. 

 The only departure 1 find from this general statement is the capture of the 



