1362 THE BUTTERFLIES OF NEW ENGLAND. 



insects may therefore be seen throughout the year, excepting in one or two 

 winter months. Abbot, in Georgia, raised the butterfly on May 2, July 4 

 and August 27 after twelve, eleven and nine days in chrysalis. 



In the north, on the other hand, the insect is double brooded and win. 

 ters as a chrysalis. It appears on the wing in May, generally about the 

 21st, seldom before the 15th (though at this date I have found them common 

 in central Connecticut, and once saw a male in Boston on May 10) oc- 

 casionally as late as the last days of the month. In northern New Eng- 

 land and corresponding latitudes it sometimes appears as late as the end 

 of the first week of Jime ; the female begins to lay eggs after the first week 

 of June and continues to do so until the brood disappears early in July. Mr. 

 Fletcher obtained eggs in Ottawa laid as late as July 23. The eggs hatch in 

 eight or nine days, and the caterpillars become full grown between the 10th of 

 July and the end of August, and, in from twenty to forty hours after the com- 

 pletion of the girth, slough their integuments and become chrysalids ; the 

 duration of this state seems to be quite variable, ranging from eight to 

 eighteen days, but the average seems to be ten or eleven. The second 

 brood generally appears a little after, occasionally shortly before, the mid- 

 dle of July and continues to emerge from the chrysalis until the end of 

 August, and to fly until at least the middle of September ; the eggs are 

 laid during August and the caterpillar may be found full grown during the 

 whole of September and occasionally during the latter days of August ; the 

 chrysalids from these hibernate. The butterflies may, therefore, generally 

 be found from the middle of May to the middle of September. 



Habits and flight of the butterfly. This buttei-fly is very fond of 

 flowers, especially, says Doubleday, "of some of the thistles, as Cnicue 

 horridulus, and of Cephalanthus occidentalis." It is said byE. M. Christy 

 that it has been known to alight on faded leaf-patches of birch, "apparently 

 mistaking them for flowers on account of the bright coloring." It is so 

 fond of the flowers of verbena that complaint has been made to the Agri- 

 cultural Department, Mr. Riley tells me, that flowers could at times 

 scarcely be got, as the butterflies in withdrawing their tongues pulled them 

 all to pieces ! On the other hand its visits to flowers have been proved to be 

 useful to the latter, as in one instance Prof. S. I. Smith took a specimen with 

 a number of pollinia of an orchid, Platanthera, attached to its proboscis, so 

 encumbered by them, indeed, that the maxillae could not be coiled up 

 between the palpi. Maynard notes that they are particularly fond of red 

 clover, and that when feeding they "keep the wings in constant, tremulous 

 motion." 



When on the wing they course about meadows and pastures, taking first 

 one direction, then another, frequently half doubling on their course and so 

 returning at last to the same place they have repeatedly visited. They ordina- 

 rily fly not more than a foot above the herbage or indeed above the ground 



