1398 THE liUTTHHFLIES OF NEW ENGLAND. 



But not all caterpillars are green, nor do all have a uniform cylindrieal 

 shape ; on the contrary, there are among tliem, and perhaps especially 

 among the caterpillars of butterflies, many odd and striking forms. 

 Among our butterflies, jierhaps tiiei'e are none so strange in appearance 

 as the caterpillars of Basilareliia. whicli liave some of the segments greatly 

 hunched and bear knotted tubercles of varying lengths, which the atti- 

 tude of the creature, with the front pint of the body arched and the 

 hinder part raised aloft, renders specially prominent : then, too, the 

 colors, green, and cream color and dark brown, mixed in an extraordinary 

 manner, heighten the strange appearance ; so tliat, one seeing it for tlie 

 first tiuie might well exclaim, " What sort of creature is that?" 



A similarly blotched caterpillar is seen in the great Heraclides cresphontes 

 of the orange trees; and we have in our own fauna not a few other 

 striking caterpillars, striking at least in tiieir colors, such as the not 

 altogether dissimilar Anosia plexippus and Papilio polyxenes, so far 

 apart in their actual structure : each of them is green, transversely marked 

 with narrow stripes of black, in eacii the head is banded vertically witii 

 black, and like many caterpillars of such gay attire, both live in unusually 

 exposed [)ositions. Among our spiny caterpillars of the Nyniphalinae, 

 we have two which are transversely banded, this time with black and 

 orange, — Euphydryas phaeton and its near neighbor, Cinclidia harrisii ; 

 these, too, are all the more striking that they are frequently found in 

 numbers in more or less open colonies. Then there are the Argynnids, 

 rarely seen, some of whicli have the front coriaceous filaments of tiie 

 body of exceptional length ; in none is this the case to such a degree 

 as in Euptoieta claudia, where they are clubbed at the tip and where 

 in addition the body is stronglj' striped with highly contrasting colors. 



Of quite a different character are the caterpillars of Eu2)hoeades 

 and Jasoniades, whicli when full grown, are green, greatly swollen in 

 i'ront, and bear upon either side of the middle of the swollen |)ortion 

 ocellate spots of great brilliancy and beauty ; while, to see the full beauty 

 and striking nature of the markings of these caterpillars, one must needs 

 use a magnifier, when the turquoise-blue spots, arranged in rows down 

 the back, will be brought more fully to view. "When one calls to mind 

 that if we tickle one of these creatures with a featiier, it will in^ alarm 

 thrust a pair of brilliant red or orange fleshy forks from (lut a slit behind 

 the head, one will have to look far to find anything quite so striking and 

 -unexpected to the ordinary observer. Or, again, look for the first time at 

 the caterpillar of Epargyreus tityrus with its great head, strangulated 

 neck and transversely banded lemon green body, and the two great orange 

 spots, like monstrous eyes, on either side of the head, andjone wonders, 

 indeed, when shown into\vhat a buttei'fly it will transform. The caterpillars 

 of Laertias philenor are of quite another type ; here tlie whole side of the 

 body, as well as a portion of its upper surface, is fringed with rows of long 



