198 BUTTERFLIES 



early summer. The caterpillars, however, of this autum- 

 nal brood have a most interesting habit which was en- 

 tirely lacking in those of early summer. Soon after hatch- 

 ing they begin to make for themselves little houses in 

 which to pass the winter. This is very cleverly done by 

 utilizing part of the leaf upon which they are feeding. 

 Each side of the leaf toward its tip is eaten off with the 

 midrib remaining untouched; then the lower half of the 

 leaf which has not been eaten is rolled into a tube and se- 

 curely sewed together with silken threads. The stem of 

 the leaf is also covered with a similar silken web and se- 

 curely fastened to the twig in such a way that it is impos- 

 sible for the leaf to fall off when the other leaves do. The 

 little caterpillar thus cleverly provides itself with a safe 

 winter home into which it retreats on the approach of cold 

 weather to remain until spring. They enter these little 

 cases head first, and apparently seldom emerge again until 

 the warm spring sun brings them forth to feed upon the de- 

 veloping willow catkins or the unfolding leaves. 



The caterpillars that thus pass the winter in these 

 pitcher-like cases are perhaps a third grown. They de- 

 velop rapidly in spring and are likely to use the cases for 

 resting purposes when they are not feeding. After a few 

 weeks they become full-grown caterpillars and change to 

 chrysalids, to change again a little later into the butter- 

 flies that appear in early summer. There are thus two 

 broods of each stage of the insect during the year. 



Curious Caterpillar Habits 



This brief summary of the yearly history of the Viceroy 

 is by no means adequate as a story of the many interesting 

 things to be told about this insect, which has been carefully 



