LYCAENINAE: THECLA LIPAROPS. 883 



Life history. lu the north the butterfly appears early in July. But 

 few records of its capture are to be found before the 12th, but it has been 

 bred by Dr. Diuuuock between July 1 and 4 and by myself July 6 and 

 12 in different years ; Mr. Liutner has also taken it on the 2d and Gth, 

 and obtained a female at Albany ou the 12th. It scarcely flies after the 

 first of August (Mr. Sprague took one poor female at Leverett as late as 

 the 14th) and the eggs laid in July continue unhatched until spring. The 

 caterpillar makes its way through the shell at about the end of tlie first 

 week in May, becomes fully grown from the middle to the latter half of 

 June, and the chrysalis state lasts from twelve to sixteen days. In the 

 south, according to Abbot, the butterfly appears quite early in May, 

 after a clirysalis period varying from eight ( ?) to eighteen days, but there 

 is no record of a second brood. 



Habits of the butterfly. This butterfly appears to be somewhat local, 

 and is never found away from thickets. Abbot says it "frequents oak fields 

 and swamps"; it is fond of the flowers of sumac (Rhus). Its flight is 

 very quick and nervous. While settling itself after flight it rubs its hind 

 wings together, like its allies. When it starts to walk, the antennae, 

 parted at about a right angle, are alternately depressed and elevated from 

 a little above the plane of the bodj' to a little below it. The front pair of 

 legs, which when at rest are raised to tlie breast, are now broufrht into 

 requisition, and even if there is nothing to touch, as there is not when 

 walking on a plane surface, they are still alternately and constantly 

 moved in the walking style. 



When resting, it stands on four legs only, its body raised at an angle of 

 about 30° with the ground, the wings erect, back to back, the lobes of the 

 hind pair just clearing the surface, the costal margin of the fore wings 

 brought forward so that the tip lies vertically over tlie base of the abdo- 

 men ; while the antennae are spread at a right angle and elevated above 

 the plane of the body so as to be nearly at right angles to the svirface of 

 rest. 



Parasites. The only parasites certainly known are Tachinid flies which 

 Dr. Dimmock raised in two instances, one on June 27 from a chrysalis 

 which pupated June 17, too late to attack any more of this species the 

 same year ; the other emerged from a caterpillar found on apple ; un- 

 fortunately the specimens have been misplaced. 



A larva supposed to belong to this species, and which was found by 

 Mr. F. G. Sanborn on Vaccinium, was fed to maturity and commenced to 

 prepare for pupation by spinning a thin carpet of silk and passing a few 

 tlireads over its thorax, when I noticed a discolored spot on the middle of 

 one side between the last thoracic and first abdominal segments ; the next 

 morning a Tachina larva was seen to have left it on the side of the under 

 surface of the second segment and to have changed to a pupa, the case of 



