984 THE BUTTERFLIES OF NEW EKGLAJSID. 



EXCURSUS XXXVII.— LOCAL BUTTERFLIES. 



There he arriving, roimd about doth (lie, 

 Krom lieil to IjeJ, from one to other Ijorder; 

 And takes survey, with curious linsic eye, 

 Of every Howreaiul herlie there set in order; 

 Now this, now that, he tasteth tenderly. 

 Yet none of them he rudely doth disorder, 

 Ne with his feete their silken leaves defaee; 

 But pastures on the pleasures of each place. 



Spenser.— J/«topo«mos. 



There is a great difference between butterflies as regards their roam- 

 ing habits. Some may be looked for almost anywhere. They course 

 over the country in every direction seeking the sweetest flowers, and, al- 

 though there may be certain haunts which they appear to prefer, they 

 range the whole region in search of flowers. You may find them by the 

 dusty wayside, in green meadows, along the river banks, in the shaded 

 roadway through the forest. Others again, and they are by far the larger 

 number, have their own special haunts which they rarely quit. There are 

 some which may not he looked for excepting in the depths of the forests, 

 though these are but few in our temperate climate ; such, for instance, is 

 Anthocharis genutia, some of the satyrids, and most ofthe species of Thanaos. 

 Others are fond of the shrubbery by streams, like many of the Theclidi, 

 though they are not altogether confined to such localities. Many will be 

 sought in vain out of the bright hot sunshine, like our common Heodes 

 hypophlaeas ; while others again are limited to swampy areas, like many of 

 the Melitaeidi and Epidemia epixanthe. In most at least of these cases, 

 the cause of the limitation is seen in the distribution of the food plant. 

 Where the food plant is scattered and grows equally well in nearly all 

 localities, like the thistle, there you may look for the butterflies whose 

 caterpillars feed upon these plants, such as the thistle buttei-fly. But this 

 is by no means so absolute in some cases as in others, and there are a few 

 species feeding upon special plants of narrow distribution which are excep- 

 tionally local in their character. Thus the snake-head, growing only in 

 marshy, boggy spots, nourishes Euphydryas phaeton, which one will rarely 

 find flying a dozen rods from where the plant grows. Others again may 

 have other limitations, like our White Mountain butterfly, which, although 

 the sedges, which are its favorite food, occur all over the upper surface ot 

 the mountains and even below the timber line, nourish the caterpillar only 

 in the upper section of the barren summits. 



It follows from this that our cultivations have made much havoc with 

 our butterflies, for as one spot after another, especially such as may nourish 

 the moisture-loving plants, is brought under drainage and cultivation, the 

 plants, unable to find in the immediate proximit}^ any suitable station, 

 become for that locality extinct and with them the butterflies depending 



