1296 THE BUTTERFLIES OF NEW ENGLAND. 



square, and again counted fifty-two settled together ; but all this is quite 

 surpassed by Prof. F. W. Putnam's statement that he actually enclosed 

 sLxty-nine specimens at once between his two hands upon a cluster of lilac 

 flowers. Travellers by the Canadian Pacific railway in July will hardly 

 fail to notice the great flocks that arise from every heap of vegetable or 

 animal refuse by the railway stations on the wilder part of the route east 

 of Lake Superior. D"Urban writes (Can. nat., v : 87) : — 



Ou the shores of Sugar-bush lake in the township of Montcalm, on the 25th June, I 

 counted fifty-six individuals crowded together in a space not exceeding six square 

 inches, where a dead catfish had laiu for some time, and others were constantly arriv- 

 ing, flying straight to the spot against the wind, as tliough they had scented it from 

 afar. On several occasions more than a dozen specimens were captured at a single 

 grasp of the hand, having become so gorged aud drowsy with their disgusting repast 

 as to be unable to fly. (Can. nat., v. 87.) 



Oviposition. According to the very careful observations of Miss 

 Clarissa Guild, the egg is laid upon the upper surface of the leaf of small 

 trees, on the branch nearest the ground, and usually only one egg on each 

 tree. I have also always found them in similar situations. They usually 

 hatch in eight days, but eggs obtained at Neplgon above Lake Superior 

 and brought to Cambridge took much longer, some of them being at least 

 a fortnight in duration ; and a pencil note on one of Abbot's MSS. says, 

 "deposits eggs, March 19 ; from the eggs, April 8," or twenty days ; and 

 this in Georgia. Mr. James Angus took one hundred and thirty eggs 

 from the body of a single female, and Mr. Edwards says they lay "about 

 two hundred." 



Food plants. Glaucus is one of the most polyphagous of all our 

 caterpillars, and feeds on a dozen different families of plants, all belong- 

 ing, however, to the angiosperms. Of the polypetalous division are : the 

 tulip tree, Lirlodendron tulipifera Linn. (Kirtland, Edwards, Ridings, 

 Nevv'man) and Magnolia acuminata Linn. (Saunders), belonging to the 

 Magnoliaceae ; basswood, Tilia americana Linn. (Gosse, Edwards), be- 

 longing to the Tiliaceae ; hop tree, Ptelea trifoliata Linn. (Abbot), one of 

 theRutaceae ; wild black cherry, Prunus serotina Ehrh. (Guild, Saunders, 

 Harris, D'Urban, Boisduval-LeConte) : wild red cherry, Prunus pennsyl- 

 vanicaLinn. (Lintner) ; choke cherry, P. virginiana Linn. ( D'Urban , Bois- 

 duval-LeConte, Riley) ; wild plum, P. americana Marsh. (Snow), and other 

 species of Prunus, such as the cultivated cherry, plum and peach (Riley), 

 the apple, Pirus malus Linn. (Harris) , quince, Cydonia vulgaris (Edwards) , 

 and probably one of the wild thorns, Crataegus (Smith), — all belonging 

 to the Rosaceae. Of the gamopetalous division are : Styrax americana 

 Lam. (Abbot), one of the Styracaceae ; black ash, Fraxinus sambuci- 

 folia Lam. (Edwards), "brown ash," perhaps the same (Gosse) ; swamp 

 ash, probably F. platycarpa Michx. according to Dr. Chapman (Abbot) ; 

 white ash, F. americana Linn. (Snow), and another species, probably F. 



