TAl'lLIONINAE: THE GENUS HERACLIDES. 1331 



dillerns. Only one species is at all common in the United States, but a 

 second is recorded from the southern horders and others are found in the 

 neighboring parts of the Antilles and mainland. The single indigenous 

 species has a wide range and has of late years extended its domain far to 

 the north and even invaded New Enjjland. 



The butterflies are above the average size of swallow-tails and of a 

 striking appearance from their contrasted colors, which are fully displayed 

 in their somewhat majestic and dignified flight, wherein ihe deep black 

 ground of the upper surface, and the sattVon hue of the under surface of 

 the wings are alternately brought into view. The upper surface is also 

 crossed by two very bold, broad bands or subcontinuous series of large 

 spots of bright yellow, wliich adds to the conspicuous appearance of the 

 butterfly, and all the species have large spatulate tails. 



The insects are polygoneutic, being double brooded at their northern 

 confines, and they apparently winter as chrysalids, — perhaps also as butter- 

 flies in the hotter regions. The eggs are laid singly and hatch in a week, 

 more or less. The caterpillar stages are passed in from twenty to forty 

 days according to circumstances, and the chrysalis hangs for rarely less 

 than a week, generally a fortnight, but may be much longer continued, 

 showing a tendency, perhaps induced from sometimes wintering, to greatly 

 prolonged life. The caterpillars live in earliest life upon the under side, 

 but afterwards fully exposed, upon various trees, but apparently mostly 

 upon Piperaceae in the warmer, Rutaceae in the cooler regions, and es- 

 pecially upon oranges. 



The metamorphoses of several of the species are known, principally 

 through studies in the cooler parts of the district inhabited by the S])ecies 

 of the genus in the two Americas. The eggs are almost exactly spherical 

 but for a considerable truncation at the base and are smeared with a thin 

 coating which obscures the surface, but by no means to the same extent as 

 in Laertias. The young caterpillars are armed with exceptionally large 

 and coarse tubercles beset vv-ith numerous divergent clubbed hairs, so as to 

 give the creature an unusually formidable aspect ; especially are the lateral 

 outgrowths of the first thoracic segment very large, exceeding in impor- 

 tance those of Euphoeades, which genus the present most resembles 

 at this stage ; at this very beginning of its life the same colorational 

 contrasts between the different parts of the body are found, though not in 

 the same detail, as afterwards obtain, the central and posterior parts of the 

 body being white and the remainder brown. The mature caterpillars have the 

 Choerocampoid form to a greater extent than any other of our species, the 

 posterior thoracic segments being more than usually tumid ; but in their 

 markings exhibit the widest contrast from those of other genera, the main 

 ground color being a rich brown with massive patches of white or yellow, 

 seen most conspicuously on the sides of the first three pediferous abdomi- 



