PLANTS 1'K1;KKKK1;I) my CATKUrMLLAKS. 1567 



The reiniiining stages, so far as known, are strictly Pamplulidiin, but the 

 cater|)illar, wliu'li is slender and some wliat (lopvcsscd. lives exposed much of 

 its later lite ; it is darker or lighter with some longitudinal markings. I 

 have never seen the chrysalis. 



EXCUBSUS LXI.— WHAT FAMILIES OF PLANTS ARE PRE- 

 FERRED BY CATERPILLARS OF BUTTERFLIES? 



Aiiil worms, tbat Mtretch on Ipavcs their liliny loom, 

 Ciiiwi from tlieir hags and butterflies become. 



Dryden. — Pythagorean Philosophy. 



Knowledge of the food plants of the caterpillars of butterflies is of 

 prime importance to one who wishes to study their life histories ; for although 

 some species are polyphagous, others are the most particular creatures 

 in the world and will starve to death if they are not supplied with just what 

 they want. That this is not always the easiest thing to learn may be in- 

 ferred from the frequent mishaps with the most experienced. And 

 it is no wonder they are sometimes at fault or at a loss, for the few but- 

 terflies described in the bod}- of this work choose their food from more 

 than one-third of tlie families of plants mentioned in Gray's Manual of our 

 botany. 



Fifty-two families are represented in the food plants of our caterpillars — 

 say a hundred species, as far as their food plants are really known* ; of 

 these, thirty-two nourish only members of one of the four families of but- 

 terflies, and as a general ride are therefore of minor significance. Excep- 

 tion must here be made, however, to four or five of these ; for instance, 

 the Violaceae, which almost exclusively suppl}' our Arg^nnidi with food; 

 the Grossulaceae, on which no less than six of our Nyniphalinae and 

 esj)ecially the Vanessidi have been found ; the Cyperaceae, on which 

 several, very likely many of the Satyrids flourish ; the Aquifoliaccae, on 

 which several of our Lycaeninae, both Theclidi and Lycaenidi, feed ; and 

 finally the Lauraceae, a favorite food plant of the Papilioninae. 



Twelve families of plants have been found to be the food of butterflies of 

 two (and not more than two) families of our butterflies, but in most of 

 these cases, they are only known as the food of single species in each family 

 and so assume small importance. Yet among them are others in which 

 the case is different. Thus the Rutaceae are known to sei"ve as the food of 

 about as many different species of Papilioninae as the Lauraceae, and they 

 are said also to be among the food plants of Chry.sophanus ; the Betidaeeae 

 are a common food of several species of Nyniphalinae and nourish also 

 Jasoniades ; while of the utmost importance are the grasses, upon which 



* All suppositions or really doubtful cases are here left out of consideration. 



