1212 THE BUTTEHFLIES OF NEW ENGLAND. 



Behavior of the butterfly. The butterfly freqiiciit.s gardens and 

 meadows, hovering over and alighting upon flowers or daneing among tlie 

 herbage ; according to Mr. Lintner, it is specially attracted by the blossoms 

 of burdock, Lappa major Gaertn. Its flight is i-ather feeble, • 'lumbering" 

 Riley calls it, and so slow are the trenudous movements of the wings that 

 one may often follow them with the eye ; it usually flies Itut a short dis- 

 tance, from two to four feet, above the herbage. As Riley remarks, it is 

 one of "the most assiduous of insects, continuing on the wing from early 

 morning till late in the afternoon." 



When the butterflies are resting for the night, the wings are at first 

 erect but parted at about an angle of 20\ the front pair dropped back be- 

 tween the hind wings, so that the costal border of the latter conceals 

 half of the upper median spot of the fore wings ; the tongue is half 

 unrolled ; the antennae viewed from the side are slightly raised and curved ; 

 viewed from above they are slightly curved outward and spread at an 

 angle of about 100°. Later the wings are a little more snugly folded-. 

 One found at dusk, head upward, at the tip of a grass-blade, had the wings 

 closely packed, the costal border of the fore wings a trifle behind that of 

 the hind pair and the antennae, spread at an angle of about 60°, drooped 

 a little from the axis of the body, the club parallel to that axis. 



According to Packard, the butterfly shows a partiality for white flowers. 

 "On a September afternoon," he says, "I observed, in a field where a low 

 white aster and a common golden-rod (Solidago) were abundant, twelve 

 European cabbage butterflies fly directly to the less conspicuous but white 

 aster, and invariably pass by the yellow flowers of the golden-rod. On a 

 following day, however, the white cabbage butterflies on the same spot 

 were seen occasionally to visit the golden-rod, but with an evident par- 

 tiality for the white asters." (Am. nat.,xi: 243.) According to Hart 

 (Nature, viii : 244-24.5), this butterfly is an agent in the fertilization of 

 violets. 



The butterflies pair in a very short time after emerging from the chrys- 

 alis. I have had them pair in my room within twelve hours of eclosion ; 

 when paii'cd, it is the male that flies or crawls, the female hanging 

 motionless. I once observed a male attempting to mate late in the season 

 (September 1.5) with a female Eurymus philodice which was alighted and 

 which acted toward the male in every respect as toward a male of her own 

 kind. The pair were by a travelled road and were unfortunately dis- 

 turbed. Dr. Hoy records (Can. ent., xiv : 99) a case where — again late 

 in the season, October 10 — a male of this species paired with a Pontia 

 protodice, which afterwards laid eggs on a bunch of mustard, and the eggs 

 hatched and reached their third stage, but finally all perished. 



It should not fail of mention here, though already stated, that this but- 

 terfly may be said to have practically extirpated the native species, P. oler- 



