LYCAENINAE: EVERES COMYNTAS. 915 



cm Mexico, Guatemala and Costa llica (Godman and Salvin). West- 

 ward it extends in aijundance to the central part of" the continent, — 

 Wisconsin (Chaniberlin, Hoy), Iowa (Allen, Austin, Osborn, Parker), 

 Missouri (Mich. Univ. Mus.), Kansas (Snow), Colorado occasional 

 (Mead), Fort Niobrara Nebr. (Carpenter), Dakota and Montana (Ed- 

 wards) and even to British Columbia and California (Mead). This 

 latter point escaped my notice when the map was prepared. 



It is found throuijhout New England — even in the White Mountain 

 district — and is everywhere a common insect, especially in the southern 

 half. 



Haunts. The butterfly frequents the roadside or overgrown pasture- 

 tracks in the vicinity of woods. Dr. Harris observed it in dry woods and 

 pastures frequently alighting on flowers of Hedysarum or Lespedeza. In 

 Iowa Mr. Allen found it "on low ground and about pools of water after 

 a shower ; also at the edges of groves by river banks." 



Oviposition. Late one July, while plucking a Desmodium flower in 

 the Botanic Garden at Cambridge, I startled one of these butterflies on a 

 neighboring flower. It immediately returned after a short flight, alighted 

 on the stalk I held in my hand and under my very eyes laid an egg on 

 one of the green buds beyond the blue flowers, tucking it into the crevice 

 between two adjoining seed vessels. Others, enclosed on Lespedeza, laid 

 eggs high up on the stems, sometimes but rarely on the upper sui-faces of 

 the leaves, sometimes on the stalk itself, but generally either on one side 

 of the base of the leaf-stalks or tucked in between the flower buds in 

 some crevice or in the axils of the leaves. Mr. Edwards says they 

 lay "on clover, blossoms and leaves." He also obtained eggs from con- 

 fined females which were "laid on the tender terminal leaves" of Desmo- 

 dium and "deposited on the young leaves and on the flowerets of the head 

 of clover." The eg:£s hatch in from three and a half to four davs. 



Food plants. The caterpillar feeds upon various leguminous plants, 

 especially Lespedeza capitata, Phaseolus perennis, Desmodium marylandi- 

 cum, species of Galactia and clover. It is also said to feed on red-root 

 (Abbot) and rag-weed (Aaron) whatever they may be. I do not find 

 any leguminous plants answering to these names. 



Habits of the caterpillar. Harris states that the larva lives solitary, 

 in the heads of Lespedeza. This I have found to be the case, the cater- 

 pillar preferring the heads even when they are mature and have little suc- 

 culence. On clover Mr. Edwards found the tender leaves 



rapidly eaten by the very young larvae, a single larva eating out [from the upper sur- 

 face] two or three furrows, the width of its body and side by side. As they became 

 larger they seemed to feed on the calyces of the flowerets exclusively, curving them- 

 selves to the surface of the clover head, or burrowing into it. On Desmodium, as 

 there were no flowers in bloom, only the tender leaves and immature flower buds were 

 eaten. 



