1278 THE BUTTERFLIES OF NEW ENGLAND. 



larval period, and vice versd." Unfortunately for this conclusion the 

 figures given by Mr. Edwards, or their reduction l)y Mr. Meldola, refer in 

 each case to the pro</eny of Marcellus, telamonidcs and ajax, and do not 

 bear upon the question at all. In every instance given in the tables, the 

 progeny or resultant is ajax. By Mr. Meldola's rule, marcellus and tela- 

 monidcs, being the produce of wintering chrysalids, should be, as they 

 are, smaller than ajax, since the latter is always the result of short-lived, 

 summering chrysalids ; unless, however, some unknown factor plays a 

 part, telamonidcs should be smaller than Marcellus, because produced later 

 in the season from wintering chrysalides ; but here the opposite is the case. 



This was pointed out by me, much as above, shortly after the publication 

 of Meldola's paper, and my remarks (originally made before the Natural 

 history society of Boston) were reprinted in the same journal not long 

 after. In a subsequent note in the same place (xiv : 239-40) Mr. Meldola 

 thanks me "for pointing out the true signification of Mr. Edwards's tabu- 

 lated results — a signification which it is difficult to gather from the text" — 

 but adds : "With regard to the issue of Mr. Scudder's remai-ks, however, 

 I may state that these do not in any way affect the main conclusion arrived 

 at by me in the paper referred to. The polymorphic f(j7-ms of I. ajax 

 do not conform to the knv of substance waste." (The italics are his.) 

 It appears to me, on the contrary, that in general they do, and it is not 

 impossible that when we know the birth-time of a large number of chrysa- 

 lids of marcellus and telamonidcs, we shall discover that the infraction of 

 the law is more apparent than real. 



Habits and flight. Doubleday, speaking in particular of the spring- 

 brood writes (Arc. entom., i : Gl). "I rarely saw it alight on flowers, 

 never, that I recollect, on the ground. Now and then it would alight on 

 flowers of [Asimina] grandiflora. . . .Its flight low, rapid (not sailing 

 with its wings expanded as thoas and others). It flies in and around 

 the low scattered brushwood, by the sides of clearings, old deserted cotton 

 fields, and similar situations, often returning to the same spots ; in fact so 

 regular did the round seem to be taken, that I have often waited behind a 

 bush for a few minutes for the return of an individual I had seen pass, and 

 rarely failed by this means to capture it. It is a shy insect and darts out 

 of its course at the least motion." Speaking of the autumn brood, which 

 he considers a distinct species, he adds {loc. cit.) : "its flight is rather 

 more graceful than that of [the spring brood] ; it sometimes alights in 

 the muddy places by the roadsides where little streamlets cross, especially 

 during the heat of the day." Kirtland, too, remarks : "these two species 

 are readily recognized by their peculiar mode of flight" ; but Edwards 

 makes no comment upon this point. Abbot says it "flies very swift." 



Enemies. "Many eggs," says Edwards, "are destroyed by insects and 

 spiders. There is a minute scarlet spider scarcely larger than the egg it- 



