PSYCHOLOGICAL PECULIARITIES. 997 



I never saw, often in one compact cluster, wings and legs and antennae 

 in a confused jumble, then off in pairs, then in two crowds, with all the 

 marks of 'mirth and jocund din.' Such scenes do certainly appear like an 

 intelligent appreciatit>n of fun, as they clearly have no reference to any 

 necessary functions of body, and seem intended only for gratification." 

 (Trans. Vassar. br. inst., ii : 133-134.) 



It is but a short step from these characteristics to that of pugnacity, 

 which is manifested by none of our own butterflies so conspicuously as by 

 Heodes hypophlaeas. Watch one on a iiot and sunny day in a favorable 

 place, and you will see the fellow dart at every passing object, be it but- 

 terfly large or small, or even a blundering grasshopper. So, too, Junonia 

 coenia has been described as "a most pugnacious little creature, and ap- 

 pears to love a quarrel, for you may see three or four of them ascending 

 in the air and buffeting each other, now rising, now falling, unremittingly 

 continuing their aerial warfare." (Jones, Nat. inBerm., 120). 



How totally different this from the sluggish, lazy, easy-going manner 

 of most of the satyrids, with their dainty ways, tossing themselves in 

 graceful throws in and out the shridjbery ; or the hurried direct way of 

 the species of Argynnis, or better of Eurymus, zigzaging from spot 

 to spot as if on business of the greatest urgency, though not quite certain 

 where it was ; or the bustling self-important actions of the larger skippers. 

 Even in the butterflies of wilder spots, less frequently seen, how great a 

 difference between the timid Pieris oleracea which, though it feeds upon 

 the produce of the garden, will scarcely let you approach in any near 

 proximity, and the showy Basilarchia arthemis that will allow you to 

 approach and pick it up with the fingers. What a contrast between the 

 dignified Anosia plexippus moving imperturbably along its own way, un- 

 disturbed by the attacks of the smaller butterflies which dash about it, 

 and the vacillating, dainty blues which cannot make up their minds just 

 what to do ; or between the wary, artful Oeneis semidea and the bold and 

 careless Euphoeades glaucus. How rarely one sees collected in one spot 

 on a flower or about a moist spot more than two or three Heodes hypoph- 

 laeas ; they are too vicious and quarrelsome to be companionable. How 

 different the equally active but eminently social Eurymus philodice or 

 Basilarchia arthemis, which congregate by hundreds, as do also Euphoea- 

 des glaucus and many others. The cunning ways of Oeneis semidea in 

 its rocky defences have been mentioned in our text, and a similar wiliness 

 appears in others, sometimes shown in a mock stupidity, as it were, flying, 

 as you cautiously pursue, just beyond the reach of your net, moving with 

 greater and greater swiftness as you increase your speed, all the while 

 against the \vind, when suddenly, after a quick movement upward, they 

 open their wings to the breeze and are carried far behind you, thus evading 

 the pursuit which they found becoming irksome, and leaving you heading 

 the wrong way. 



