1422 THE BUTTERFLIES OF NEW ENGLAND. 



Springfield (Emery, Dimmock), Parker reports it from Mt. Holyoke, 

 single specimens are taken at rare intervals in the vicinity of Boston, Mass. 

 — Waltham, Winchester, Wollaston (Sanborn, Plympton, Thaxter, Scud- 

 der, Sprague). On only one occasion have I seen any considerable num- 

 ber in one day. C. P. Whitney has even taken three or four specimens at 

 Milford, N. H. 



Oviposition. An enclosed female laid eleven eggs forme, all, with one 

 or two exceptions, on the under side of the leaves. These hatched, at end of 

 June, in about a week. In West Virginia ilr. Edwards found them 

 hatcli in four days. 



Food plants. Enclosed females laid freely both for Mr. Edwards and 

 myself on Desmodium and were raised on that plant, in Mr. Edwards's case 

 on D. dillenii. Abl)ot and Smith figure it on Desmodium paniculatum, 

 a broad leaved form ; but Abbot in his MS., besides beggai'"s lice (Desmo- 

 dium), gives " indigo'" (Indigofera or Baptisia?) and "the plant figured," 

 which in this instance is Ipomaea pandurata, one of the Convohidaceae. 

 On one occasion I saw a female flitting about a plant of Corydalis glauca, 

 one of the Fumariaceae, as if wishing to lay eggs there. Its food is there- 

 fore probably wider than the Leguminosae, though these are certainly its 

 tavorites, and among tliem Desmodium holds the first place. 



Habits of the caterpillar. In constructing its home the caterpillai' 

 seems to select by preference a place where one leaf covers another and 

 stitches them together for a most innocent looking nest, which disturbs the 

 natural arrangement of the leaves to the least degree. It prefers at first 

 an elevated place near the summit of Desmodium, but when it becomes 

 more than half grown requires the larger leaves tielow. It repeatedly 

 changes its home, quitting it tlie moment it becomes too strait and construct- 

 ing another, often crawling some distance, as to a contiguous plant, to 

 make a good selection. On deserting its old nest it partially destroys it by 

 cutting most of the threads, apparently because this gives the nest the ap- 

 pearance of liaving been torn open and the occupant made away with. 

 Wlien at rest, at least when more than half grown, the larva lies with liead 

 and tail facing in the same direction, after the fashion of many other Hes- 

 peridi. According to Abbot, with its last moult, the yellow markings be- 

 come pink. 



Seasons and habits. It is single brooded in tlie north, and double 

 brooded in the south, hibernating in both regions as a chrysalis. In the 

 south, the earliest butterflies appear in Georgia aljout tlie middle of April 

 and the second brood, after passing 13 days in the chrysalis (Al)bot), before 

 the middle of July. In New England the butterflies appear in the latter 

 half of May, probably about tlie 20th, thougli rarely before the first of 

 June about Boston, doubtless continue to emerge from the chrysalis until 

 the middle of June, and fly until about tlie middle of July ; but all July 



