1482 THE RUTTEKFLIES OE XEW ENGLAND. 



but undoubtedly by error, for one of the western species. Gundlach also 

 formerly quoted it from Cuba, but no specimens from that island liave 

 come to my notice, and latterly he has referred what he had considered this 

 sfiecies to T. jaruco. 



In A^ew England it is confined to the south, the northernmost localities 

 from which it has been reported being Milford, N. H. "rare" (Whitney), 

 Amherst (Parker), Belchertown (Sprague), Andover (Scudder) and Fox- 

 boro, Mass. (Emery) . In Connecticut and the southern half of Massachu- 

 setts, including Cape Cod and the Connecticut valley, it is very abundant. 



Haunts. The butterfly is most abundant in open oak thickets or by 

 roadsides near them, where it is fond of resting on the wet sands. One 

 may sometimes take them upon the flowers of everlasting, on dry hillsides in 

 the neighborhood of oak woods. Harris states that they are found in 

 meadows, but if found there it must be in the vicinity of woods or shrub- 

 bery ; hilly pastures would be more probable. 



Oviposition. The eggs are laid singly. The only one I have seen laid 

 naturally was laid upon an oak twig, crowded up next to a leaf scar as if 

 for protection ; but it is probable that they are laid also upon leaves, and 

 perhaps, from the ordinary habit of the caterpillar to construct its nest by 

 working from the under side, usually upon the under surface. This one 

 hatched, in June, in eight and a half days. 



Food plants. Oak seems to form the principle food of the larva in the 

 north. Small plants growing in forest clearings seem to be favorites and 

 Abbot specifies the "narrow leaved winter green oak," which Dr. Chapman 

 thinks must be one of the varieties of the willow oak — Quercus phellos 

 Linn. I have found it abundantly on the scrub oak, Quercus ilicifolia, and 

 liiley has found it on white oak, Quercus alba Linn., and the chestnut oak 

 Q. castanea?. Edwards sent me a specimen reared by him in West Vir- 

 ginia on filbert (Corylus). Dr. Harris states that it feeds also on the 

 ground nut, Apios tuberosa Moench, and the vetchling — Lathyrus ; Abbot 

 and Smith figure it upon Galactia pilosa and Abbot says it lives also upon 

 "wild indigo" (perhaps Galactia glabella) — all, excepting the Cupuliferae, 

 members of the pulse family, Leguminosae. 



Habits of the caterpillar. Like the other species of the genus this 

 caterpillar constructs a retreat for itself liy folding a portion of a leaf and 

 fastening it in the desired place by silk (82 : 1,2); usually the leaf is bent 

 downward and the under surface of the leaf forms the walls of its abode ; 

 at other times, however, the reverse is the case, the caterpillar living on the 

 upper surface, and the nest is then easily discoverable from the contrast 

 which the duller color of the reversed portion bears to the uncovered part 

 of the upper surface ; the edges of the leaf are fastened together at consid- 

 erable intervals by long strands of golden colored silk, very strongly attached 

 at the extremities ; the openings left at the side — for the edge of the reversed 



