PAPIUONINAE: I.AKUTIAS I'lIILENOR. 1247 



then a stiulent of Harvard College ami curator of entomology in this 

 college society, has been given me, by which it appears that two 

 broods of caterpillars were found at that time, only one of which was 

 secured bv Dr. Harris, the other being destrovcd by the {jardcuer. The 

 writer conjectures that the eggs were laid by "some stray individuals driven 

 here from New Haven by violent winds ; possibly this is the original 'beau- 

 tiful buttei-fly come from Connecticut' " ; but he adds that a specimen was 

 caught earlier in the same summer a few miles distant at AVatertown. 

 Dr. Harris remarks (Entom. corresp., 147) that, "Aristolochia sipho 

 grows wild in the woods about New Haven, which is the nearest locality 

 to Cambridge of this genus of plants. It is possible that philenor may be 

 found there and from thence an impregnated female may have migrated, or 

 may have been carried by the winds to this place." Dr. Asa Gray, how- 

 ever, wTites that "Aristolochia sipho does not grow wild in New England 

 at all. It is sparingly planted and is hardy throughout all or most of New 

 England. Its proper habitat is in and along the Alleghanies and it is in- 

 digenous north to the middle of Pennsylvania," — just where this buttei-fly 

 ceases to be common. For several years I have examined the same plant 

 at the Botanic Garden without success, but catei'pillars have occasionally 

 appeared there since 1840. A fresh specimen of the buttei-fly was taken 

 on the Watertown side of Mt. Auburn (Cambridge) in 1869 by Mr. 

 Davenport (Atkinson) ; one specimen was taken and another seen in Wal- 

 pole. N. H.. in 1870 by IMr. Smith. 



Abundance and haunts. This is a very common buttei-fly in the 

 south, frequenting blossoms and damp spots in roads. According to 

 Doubleday, it frequents the flowers of Asimina grandiflora, and Abbot 

 speaks of its fondness for those of plum and peach. "One of the most 

 numerous of the many species that gaily flutter their brilliant wings in 

 the burning beams of almost vertical noon ajid contribute so much 

 to the life and beauty of nature by their presence," says Gosse, "is the 

 blue swallow-tail. ... I have taken these fluttering about the heads of the 

 orange milk weed, their abdomens filled almost to bursting with the yellow 

 nectar of these flowers, and so distended that the divisions of the segments 

 are obliterated, and are discernible only by being bare of the scaly plum- 

 age. When in this state, they seem unwilling to fly, but either remain at 

 rest or ran to and fro over the blossoms, keeping their hind wings in a 

 vibratory, quivering motion." (Lett. Alab., 77.) Rev. Mr. Matin of 

 Huntsville, east central Texas, in sendmg, March 5, 1874, a specimen of 

 this butterfly to Mr. Riley, speaks of "the multitudinous swarms . . . now 

 flying about and literally fiUing the peach trees, now in full bloom. . . . 

 I never saw so many butterflies of any one kind as there now are of this. 

 The little yellow fellows that are seen in the summer around mud puddles 

 in the road are few in comparison" (Am. nat., xv : 829). 



