1350 THE BUTTERFLIES OF NEW ENGLAND. 



The I)utterflie8 have a wilder and more unsteady flight tlian those of Iphi- 

 clidea. The European species is said by Meyer Dlir to occur in Switzerland 

 from the plains nearly to the height of 5000 feet ; the southern species 

 of the New World are probably confined to elevated regions. 



The metamorphoses of several species'are known. The eggs are nearly 

 spherical and about a millimetre in diameter; the juvenile larvae are angu- 

 lated, a little tumid on some of the anterior segments and covered with 

 longitudinal series of warty tubercles beset with whorls of little bristles. 

 Tliey are nearly black, with a saddle of white across the middle, and this 

 coloring continues through several moults, differing somewhat in different 

 species. 



The mature caterpillars are cylindrical and nearly equal throughout, 

 slightly moniliform, naked, green, transversely striped with velvety black 

 bands in which orange spots are arranged in regular longitudinal series, 

 and they are thus very conspicuous objects ; this livery is usually assumed 

 with the foui-th stage. The osmateria are perhaps smaller than in the other 

 New England genera. 



The chrysalids are generally greenish brown, more or less streaked with 

 black, and are thus admirably concealed from view by their close resem- 

 blance to the dry bark of the twigs on which they may transform. In form 

 they strongly resemble those of Jasoniades, although the caterpillars of 

 the two genera are very different. 



EXCURSUS LII. —THE LA W OF SUFFUSION IN BUTTERFLIES. 



Wie Jer Schiuetturliiig llattert uiu eiue Blum' 

 Am zarten Kelcli zu iiippen, 

 So flatterte meiiie Seele stets 

 Um ihre Rosenlippen. 



Heine.— Der Tannhauser. 



Once iu a while the collector in a well gleaned field is startled by cap- 

 turing a butterfly with which he does not feel that he is acquainted. It 

 has an uncanny look. He sees at once what it is like, that it is a Vanessid 

 perhaps, or iin Argynnid ; but then he knows all these by heart, and this 

 is surely none of them. " A variety," suggests his companion at the 

 Entomological Olub. Yes ; but who ever saw such a variety, and of what? 

 How blurred and streaked, too, it looks. 



It does not often happen to a collector himself to meet these bizarre 

 types in the field ; but when found they are sure to be saved ; and by degrees 

 the collectors in one locality, by comparing notes, may discover that these 

 sports occur in many species, and in the disturbance of their markings 

 follow similar lines ; iu general these sports have been aptly termed suffu- 

 sions, and it is the law of suffusion which we would here briefly notice. In 



