AS BOTANISTS 49 



a good fourth of our butterfly fauna, even omit- 

 ting the many PamphiHni which doubtless feed 

 upon grasses but which are not yet known in their 

 early life. 



The families of plants fed upon by all four 

 families of butterflies are three in number, and 

 with the Rosaceae just mentioned and the Gra- 

 mineae, the greatest supporter of caterpillar life, 

 must be looked on as the favorite food of butter- 

 flies in their early stages. These are the Cupuli- 

 ferae and especially the oaks which nourish eight 

 species, mostly Lycaenidae and Hesperidae ; the 

 Salicaceae, the food of eleven species, five of them 

 Nymphalidae, the others equally divided among 

 the remaining families ; and the Leguminosae, 

 which vie for preeminence with the Gramineae, 

 for twenty-three of our species are found upon it ; 

 of these, nine are Hesperidae (and perhaps exclu- 

 sively Hesperini), seven are Lycaenidae, five Papi- 

 lionidae (exclusively Pierinae and indeed Rhodo- 

 cerini), and two Nymphalidae. 



More than one third of our butterfly fauna is 

 made up of the lowest, least known, and most 

 inconspicuous family, the Hesperidae, our mem- 

 bers of one tribe of which feed almost exclusively 

 on Leguminosae (a few on Salicaceae, Cupuli- 



