968 'rHK BUTTERFLIKS OF NEW EX(;I.ANI). 



one side of the suimuit, otU'ii making a renifoini opening out of wliich 

 it crawls as soon as possible, and leaves tlie rest of the egg intaet. 



The caterpillar has a very extensible head and flexible neck and its man- 

 ner of feeding immediately after birth is rather remarkable ; it pierces the 

 lower cuticle of the leaf, making a hole just large enough to introduce its 

 minute head, and then devours all the interior of the leaf as far as it can 

 j-ejich — nianv times the diameter of the hole — so tliat wlien tlie caterpillar 

 o-oes elsewhere, the leaf looks as if marked with a circular lilister, having 

 a central nucleus ; the nearly colorless membranes of the leaf being all that 

 is left, and at the central entrance to the blister the upper membrane only. 

 Tiie blister or pustule is 1.75 mm. in diameter, and the nucleus like open- 

 ing to it only about .2.5 nun. in diameter. 



In later life, generally by the fourth stage, it feeds as well on the upper 

 as on the under surface of the leaf, though it still seems to {>refer the 

 under surface, and in either case eats entirely through the cuticle of the 

 surface on which it rests down to the opposite integument, but never 

 piercing the leaf: it still also retains to some degree its early habit, of 

 piercing by means of its long neck helween the integuments to get the 

 juicier parts ; and I have seen it bore out tlie cut end of a stem down to the 

 rind on every side. Occasionally, when full grown, it eats the leaf entirely 

 through. It shows no pro])ensity whatever to cannibalism, even under 

 provocation. 



Mr. Saunders obser\ed this cater})illar accompanied by ants ; indeed he 

 found their discovery "comparatively easy from the invariable presence 

 of these active attendants." The ants were actively running about the 

 leaves on which these caterpillars were found and repeatedly over the cat- 

 erpillars themselves, which did not seem in the least disturbed by them. 

 Their attendance was of course to obtain the fluids secreted from the 

 seventh abdominal segment of the caterpillar, as in Cyaniris. 



Life history. This butterfly is double brooded throughout the whole 

 of its range, the first generation making its advent during the last week 

 in May, the females emerging the first week in June when the males are 

 common ; the height of its abundance is about the 10th of June, and by 

 the middle of the month the numbers begin to diminish, although speci- 

 mens may be found even in July, so as to join the second brood when 

 that is early ; the eggs are laid throughout June, hatch, as stated, in seven to 

 eight days, the caterpillar becomes fully grown in alunit a month, and the 

 chrysalis hangs from nine to eleven days. The second brood varies con- 

 siderably in the time of its apparition. Mr. Saunders reports that the first 

 butterflies appeared one year in London, August 2 ; while Mr. Lintner took 

 the first at Albany on July 15, another year found them beginning to fly 

 by the 7th, and one year even found them "very abundant" on the 9th. So, 

 too, in the year in which they appeared July 15, a few of both sexes were 



