IlESPEKIUI: TII.\NAOS ICKLUS. 1513 



the end of the month it had stopped feeding ; it was then placed in a cool 

 cellar, remained all winter in tiie same condition and changed to chrysalis 

 in tiie early spring witiiout eating, and there was no evidence that it ever 

 left its winter home ; eight months of the year, therefore, were passed as a 

 full fed caterpillar, showing no signs of active life beyond closing with 

 silk any openings which were made in the wall of its nest, an action entirely 

 similar to that of all the species of Thanaos in wintering. 



Fitch says that the caterpillar he fonnd September 9, 1858, on witch 

 hazel draws the leaves around it with white tlireads into a pod and feeds on 

 them, "eating their margins irregularly and occasionally gnawing a hole in 

 them." 



Life history. The insect is single brooded and hibernates as a full fed 

 ]ar\a ; it changes to chrysalis early in the spring, and remaining therein at 

 least three weeks was bred by Abbot in Georgia A])ril 21 ; Edwards, how- 

 ever, bred it May 13 after only sixteen days in pupa. In New England it 

 appears about the middle of May, the earliest record being May 10, near 

 Boston, and May 11, Nantucket, tolerably common in each instance, only 

 males appearing so early, and they being often delayed until the 20th, when I 

 have taken both sexes. Lintner's earliest printed record at Albany, N. Y., 

 is the 19th, but we have recently found it there on the 17th in some abun- 

 dance. It becomes abundant in about ten days after its first apparition 

 and is found throughout June, and occasionally, about the latitude of Bos- 

 ton, until the end of the first week of July. 



In the White Mountains it never seems to appear before the last w^eek in 

 May, often not until the first of June ; may generally be still taken fresh 

 from the chrysalis at the middle of June and usually flies until the end 

 of the first week in July. Miss Wadsworth has taken it at Hallowell, Me., 

 as early as May 20. In Colorado Mr. Mead took fresh males June 10, 

 and not very fresh females June 15, so that the season there is probably 

 much as in the White Mountains ; while at Nepigon they were not un- 

 common and fairly fresh early in July and eggs were laid at that time, 

 hatching just before the middle of the month (so, too, Mr. Fletcher has sent 

 mc a fresh female, taken at Fort Simpson June 26) ; caterpillars from these 

 eggs, when removed to Massachusetts, reached their fourth stage August 8, 

 and would probably have been full fed before the end of August. In West 

 Virginia Edwards found a caterpillar which he took to be in the first stage 

 on June 20 and observed moults on June 27, July 5 and July 16, and 

 thinks one may have escaped him between the last two seen ; the caterpil- 

 lar stopped feeding before the end of July, and after passing the winter in 

 a cool chamber, was restored to normal condition on March 7 ; yet it was 

 not until the end of A])ril that pupation took place. 



Habits of the butterfly. The butterfly rests with outspread wings 

 upon moist sand by roadsides (Lintner). A specimen in the Museum of 



190 



