XIV. 



THE FIXITY OF HABIT IN BUTTERFLIES 



The habits of butterflies are of extreme anti- 

 quity. Tliey are ingrained into the very texture 

 of their lives. They are older than, or at least 

 as old as, the patterns which adorn their wings. 

 Moreover butterflies have two sets of habits, and 

 these statements are equally true of either. The 

 habits of their earlier life as a crawling caterpillar 

 find no place in their aerial life on the wing, and 

 vice versa ; although in some we may find certain 

 common characteristics shared by the two, as in 

 the leisurely ways of the Satyrinae. 



That this is true follows from the fact that cer- 

 tain special habits characterize large groups. Thus 

 the mode of flight of the Satyrinae, which toss 

 themselves lazily up and down as they move lei- 

 surely from spot to spot, is found to a greater or less 

 degree in all the members of the sub-family ; even 

 in our White Mountain butterfly (Oeneis semidea) 

 which inhabits a place and is subjected to external 



