o 



rA.Ml'UlLIDI: ANCYLOXirilA Nl'MITOU. 1561 



achusctts, but has been recorded from only two localities north of it, Nor- 

 way. Me. (Smith) and Milford, X. II. "coinindii" (Wiiitncy'). It will 

 proltablv be found somewhat further north. 



Haunts. The butterfly frequents low marshy meadows and the borders 

 of runlets passing through thcin, especially where half choked with wild 

 grasses, or in neglected bottom lands iu the moister spots, but especially 

 next to running water. Abbot gives, as for most of the skippers, "oak 

 woods," but it would probably be in somewhat similar stations therein that 

 he found them, particularly as he adds : "fields in low grounds." In 

 another manuscript he says the least yellow skipper "is frequent in rice 

 fields ;ui(l meadowy parts of branches" (i. e. small streams) which is pre- 

 cisely as elsewhere. 



Oviposition. All of the eggs I have seen were laid in confinement, 

 many of them received from Messrs. Hambly and Clapp who simply enclosed 

 females in pill boxes ; in these instances they were generally deposited on 

 the sides of the boxes, but occasionally on tlie bottom ; others were laid on 

 the sides of erect blades of grass. They hatch in June and July in nine or 

 ten days ; in September in from five to seven days. 



Food and habits of caterpillar. The caterpillar feeds readily upon 

 counuou grasses. I'robably its natural food will be found to be some of the 

 wild sjrasses which love mucli nioisture. When first hatched it constructs a 

 nest for itself on either side of a blade of grass by fastening together the 

 opposite edges with from five to twelve strong bands of silk, the threads 

 of each band crossing one another, thus making the bands broader at their 

 origin than in the middle ; after their first moult, this is perfected by closing 

 the interstices with a thin irregular web of silk ; behind or beneath this the 

 caterpillar remains. Specimens which hatched in an empty box surrounded 

 themselves with a broad carpet of silk on all sides excepting behind, leaving 

 also the spot on which they rested uiicovered. 



Life history. It is triple brooded and passes the winter either in the 

 chrvsalis or as a mature larva. It appears on the wing early in June, 

 occasionally as early as the Ist but ordinarily not before the 7th in the 

 southernmost parts of New England or the 10th or 1 2th in the vicinity of 

 Boston ; occasionally it is a little later ; by the middle of the month it 

 is not only abundant but by this time, if not earlier, the females, which 

 are always later than the males, have begun to lay eggs ; by the 21st the 

 numbers begin to diminish and it seldom continues into the following 

 month. The eggs hatch in nine or ten days and the young larva, moult- 

 ing for the first time in four days, probably attains its growth by the mid- 

 dle of July ; the duration of the chrysalis stage is unknown, but the second 

 brood of butterflies makes its advent during the last week of July, gener- 

 ally between the 2Uth and 25th, sometimes not until the 28th or 30th. 

 Eggs are laid at once when the females appear. This brood scarcely 



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