944 rill'- HUTTEKFLLES OF NKW ENGLAND. 



wliea tliey arc piimed but iiDt se't. Tlie Ijody is tlioa bent in sucli a way 

 that while the abdomen and lower edges of all the wings rest upon the 

 eurfaec, the thorax is elevated at an angle of 45°. The antennae are de- 

 pressed so that they are on a line with the outer half of the eostal margin 

 of the fore wings ; they divaricate at the same time at an angle of 80" or 

 even as much as 110'. 



Polymorphism. I liave reserved for the ])reseut section a full account 

 of tlie various forms assumed by this insect, although it lias been necessary 

 to state many of the facts in treating of the life history, and other topics. 

 The species is spread over almost the entire North American continent. 

 In the extreme north from Lalirador to Alaska it is single brooded, but 

 appears in two forms, lucia and v'iolacea, differing largely in the heaviness 

 of the marking's of the under surfiice : whether one or the other t'orni flies 

 before the other, does not appear from any observations on the spot, as 

 these ai'c too meagre, but there is certainly nothing to show that it 

 differs in this respect from what we find furtlier south. To examine this 

 we must confine our attention to the eastern half of the continent. Not 

 far from latitude 45° N. two new phenomena ap})ear : the butterfly becomes 

 double brooded and trimorpliic, and tlie third form with still lighter 

 markings, of which tlie second brood is exclusively composed, appears also 

 as a member of the first brood, the three forms succeeding each other at 

 least within a month in the order of the heaviness of the dai'k markings 

 of the under surface, viz. : lucia, violaeea, neglecta. Confining our atten- 

 tion for the moment to the first brood, observations would seem to show 

 that in the northern part of the belt of its trimorphism, the form neglecta 

 is comparatively rare, but that in proceeding farther and farther south it 

 becomes proportionally more and more numerous until, as about Albany, 

 N. Y., it has altogether usurped in numerical imj)ortance the place for- 

 merly occupied by lucia, which entirely disappears at about the latitude of 

 41°, except (probably) in mountainous districts. At the same time the 

 second brood, although apparently not more the product of neglecta than 

 of violaeea, becomes more abundant. We now reach another l)elt of 

 country in which we find the butterfiy again dimor[)hic in the first genera- 

 tion, — violaeea and neglecta in the order of their appearance, and the 

 summer generation as before. But we have not far to pass, say to 38" or 

 30° N., before we reach a new condition, in which the first form of the 

 first generation becomes sexually dimorpiiic, the males aj)pearing under 

 two guises, one blue above, the normal violaeea, the other dark brown, 

 violacea-nigra ; and this apparently continues as the condition of tilings 

 as far toward the Gulf as the species extends. There can be little doubt 

 that this succession of changes in passing from north southward is modi- 

 fied and interfered with to a considerable extent by the Alleghanies, and 

 that on their flanks, in very near vicinity, we may find at least some exam- 



