1342 THE BUTTERFLIES OF XEW EXGLANU. 



Hating young trees (Huhbard). According to Coleman, they appear to 

 feed wlioliy in the daytime. When not feeding they remain rigidly 

 motionless on the surface of leaves, and then, [)artieularly when young, as 

 remarked by several uersons, they closely resemble tlic excrement of birds, 

 affording, no doubt, W considerable protection against insectivorous ani- 

 mals. Mr. Seagrave tells iiie that the caterpillars he found in Cambridge 

 remained on the under side of the leaves when young, and ate only the 

 tenderer parts between the veins of the leaves : when partly grown thej' were 

 also found on the upper side of the leaves, and when the}' became still 

 larger they rested upon the brandies and the long leaf-stem of the prickly 

 ash, eating the entire leaf, excepting the midrib. The osmateria emit a 

 very disagreeable odor. The caterpillar stage generally lasts a])out a 

 month, l)ut may be as short as twenty ilays. 



Hubliard suggests, as a means of keeping the insect in check, the ex- 

 traordinary device of shooting the buttei'flies with dust-siiot fioni a fowling- 

 piece, as they cluster about flowers ! "An insect," he remarks, "which 

 has a spread of wing of four or five inches affords a by no means despi- 

 cable object for target practice." Gunning for butterflies may yet be 

 introduced into the list of southern sports. 



Pupation. Tiie caterpillar is said to generally suspend itself upon the 

 twigs or branches or even the leaves of the tree that has nourished it, 

 tliougli Dwight found some suspended "under the stones of farm walls." 

 The hibeniatino' chrvsalids, accordins to Comstock and others, so closely 

 resemble the color of the l)ark of tiie orange tree that it is difficult to de- 

 tect. '•Tiie irregular projections of the head and breast, and sundry mark- 

 ings resembling cracks in the bark, and even minute lichens growing upon 

 it, bear out the striking likeness to a bit of a knotty orange liranch most 

 perfectly." The summer chrysalids remain suspended for from si.x to six- 

 teen days, according to the season, ten to fourteen being the most com- 

 mon. French had two chrysalids change to butterflies in Auoust, after 

 twenty-seven and tliirty-nine days, while their comrades changed in fifteen 

 and sixteen days, and his general experience in Illinois showed a range of 

 from fourteen to twenty-four days. Boll mentions one interesting chrysa- 

 lis from catcrjiillars of 187.5, which did not give the imago until April, 

 1877! 



Life history. There are four broods of this butterfly in Florida, accord- 

 ing to Comstock and Hubbard, between February and October ; three in 

 northern Texas, according to Boll, the caterpillars being found in April 

 and May, July, and September and October; in both places, as in the 

 north, the chrysalis hibernates. At the northern limit of its distribution, 

 there are two broods, the butterflies appearing early in .Time or e^en in the 

 last week of May, flying throughout June, and the second l)n)od appearing 

 again at the end of July ; they evidently continue to emerge from the 



