1250 THE BUTTERFLIES OF NEW ENGLAND. 



difficulty in preventing tliis devastation by destroying the young cater- 

 pillars as soon as any marks of their destructive propensities are seen, for 

 they are then clustered in companies and easily discovered. 



Harris remarks that the young caterpillars, "before their first moulting, 

 closely resemble in form and in their tubercles, the figures of the larva of 

 Ornithoptera helicaon. . . . After the first moulting, the first pair of tuber- 

 cles increase in length, and become proportionally much longer than the 

 others, and the body itself becomes more elongated." 



Life history. In the north the insect is double brooded and appears 

 to hibernate as a butterfly. Still the earliest record of its appearance is 

 toward the middle of May ; in central California the butterfly appears by 

 the first of April ; in the south early in March, and not improbably it is 

 polygoneutic even as far north as Missouri. In the middle states the eggs 

 are laid at the end of May and hatch in from seven to nine days. In the 

 south caterpillars of the first brood are matured by the end of April and 

 disclose the butterflies in from ten to fourteen days (Abbot). In Califor- 

 nia the caterpillars of this brood change to chrysalis all through May and 

 June, and the chrysalis state lasts three weeks or a little more, occasionally 

 a little less (H. Edwards). In the northeastern states young and full 

 grown caterpillars may be found in the middle of June, and the first but- 

 terflies from chrysalis appear in July and lay their eggs the latter part of 

 the month : the young caterpillars may be found early in August and gen- 

 erally attain maturity by the last week in August; the chrysalids hang 

 from twenty-four to twenty-seven days, so that the hibernating butterflies 

 make their appeai'ance during the last week of September. With us the 

 caterpillar state lasts from three to four weeks, but is very much prolonged 

 late in the season by cold weather. In West Virginia, according to Mr. 

 Edwards, it lasts but a fortnight or a little more, and the chi-ysalis state is 

 of about the same duration, — a peculiar j)oint in the history of this butterfly 

 everywhere. Mr. W. H. Edwai'ds thinks there are many broods in West 

 Virginia from "early spring to frosts." Mr. H. Edwards says there are 

 only two broods in central California, the last of May and in August, and 

 states that he had two living chrysalids on October (5, so that he thinks it 

 hibernates in that stage ; but with us, to judge from meagre statistics, late 

 chrysalids always give the butterfly the same season. I have had them 

 appear as late as September 23. From southern eggs I have had, in Cam- 

 bridge, living caterpillars as late as the end of October. 



Flight, posture, etc. The fondness of this butterfly for flowers has 

 already been alluded to. The pollinia of orchids may often be found ad- 

 hering to them. I once found one attached to the tip of one of the fore 

 legs, where the butterfly had carelessly put his foot in his own pot of 

 honey. They are usually attached to the naked eyes, where these come in 

 contact with the rostellum in probing the depths of a flower, and Aaron 



