HESPERIDI: THORYBES PYLADES. 1443 



tliree to one by the other sex ; bad weather in tlie hitter part of June will 

 diminish the number of this inscet eeventy-five per cent in a few days, but a 

 few always linger on until at least the middle of July and in elevated districts 

 until the end of July. The eg^s arc mostly laid in the latter half of June, 

 hatcli in about six days, the caterpillars may be found half grown before 

 the middle of July and fully grown from the 20th of the month until the 

 early part of September ; the insect remains in the chrysalis state about 

 twenty days and the second brood of buttei-flies, which is much less abun- 

 dant than the first (probably because many chrysalids continue until the 

 next spring), appears in August, pei'haps sometimes as early as the begin- 

 ning, but usually not before the middle of the month, continuing upon the 

 wing until past the middle of September ; whether the progeny of this 

 brood reaches the chrysalis stage before winter approaches has never yet 

 been determined : if not it probably perishes. 



In the south, the only data at hand, from the notes of Dr. Palmer, 

 show that in central Florida the butterfly appears in the latter part of 

 March and begins to grow scarce by the middle of April, so that a larger 

 number of liroods is to be looked for there. 



Habits and behavior of the butterfly. Open fields and meadows 

 are the favorite resorts of this buttei-fly, where it may be found passing 

 fi"om one flower to another, frequently alighting upon the heads of clover. 

 Mr. Lintner has even found it resting on excrement in the road ; open 

 lanes or sunny grassy plots in woods are also frequented by it, and here 

 it may be more readily captured. Its flight is difficult to follow, the but- 

 terfly is so quick in its movements and so vague in direction ; it is never 

 leisurely, and generally flies about two or three feet from the ground, not 

 far above the tops of the herbage. It is infinitely more vigorous and rapid 

 than the species of Thanaos, darting about in a frantic manner when alarmed 

 and is often so fleet and irregular in its natural movements as scarcely to be 

 followed in the lessening light of the declining day — to which it is the last of 

 our butterflies to succumb. It is very pugilistic. I once saw one attack an 

 E. titvi'us which had invaded its domain, and drive off the intruder to agrreat 

 distance by a vigorous onslaught, following its victim with unerring flight in 

 all its twists and turns and keeping never more than a foot away, both speed- 

 ing with amazing swiftness ; by and by py lades came back to his haunt, but 

 I waited in vain for tityrus. 



While laying her eggs, the female flies much more slowly, moving in 

 and out among the herbage at less than a foot from the ground, stopping 

 very frequently, as if intending to alight, poising her heavy body with 

 rapid fluttering of the wings and apparently touching the plants with her 

 feet to feel their character ; finding a clover leaf suited to her inclinations, 

 she alights on the under surface with her head just at the edge and remain- 

 ing on the leaf about three seconds, deposits a single q^^ somewhere near 



