^Z7 



vernal females must go along some months (the author says about 

 three months in the Curious History, but changes to about two 

 months in " Butterflies,") before their eggs are developed, and by 

 that time the males of the aestival brood are understood to be 

 dead, as " the males of a brood are the first to disappear."* 



It is stated also — but this is of secondary importance to the 

 preceding statement — that the aestival brood lays eggs in Sep- 

 tember, which hatch presently and the larvae from them go at 

 once into letliargy^ while in the vernal brood the eggs are laid in 

 July and August, and the larvae from these last reach 2d moult 

 and then all hibernate. It follows, if this be so, in Mr. Scudder's 

 view, that these hibernators will have the earliest start the next 

 spring, and will reach chrysalis and butterfly some weeks before 

 the others who spent the winter in the q^%. They get such a 

 start in fact that the others cannot overtake them ; though why 

 so long-lived butterflies as these are asserted to be could not 

 bridge over the gap of a few weeks, and the two broods be 

 able to commingle, does not clearly appear— especially as indi- 

 viduals of the same generation breed irregularly, and all the pre- 

 paratory stages are irregular as to duration, so that some weeks 

 elapse between the first appearance of the earlier and later but- 

 terflies. But the author is sure the broods do not commingle 

 and that each goes its own way " as distinct as any other two 

 species." Each is asserted to be one-brooded only, though it is 

 allowed that there is an appearance as of three annnal broods, and 

 the author has thought out as intricate a theory as that of Ptole- 

 my to account for these apparent motions. The simple statement 

 that the sun and not the earth was the centre of the system 

 cleared up all difliculties in the one case, and the simple fact 

 that the females of these butterflies lay eggs, or may do so, almost 

 as soon as they emerge from chrysalis ought to relieve all doubt 

 in the other. I assert that they do this, and that one generation 

 follows another in direct succession from spring to fall, and that 

 the mysterious appearance of three broods is accounted for 

 without cycles and epicycles. 



Now to the proof. I was at Hunter, New York, in the Cats- 

 kills, at an elevation of from 1650 to 2000 feet above the sea, in 

 July, 1875. The climate there is hke much of New England, and 

 any butterfly there we may be sure would behave just as it would 

 do in Massachusetts or New Hampshire. Between 20th and 

 25th July I obtained many eggs of Myrina by confining the 

 females in a bag over plants of violet. The caterpillars from 

 these eggs began to pupate 27th August, and the butterflies to 

 emerge 3d September. On 4th September 3 ? 2 (5 came out, and 



♦This is contrary to my experience. I believe the females of all butterflies die shortly after laying 

 their eggs, while many males, perhaps from not having found their mates, continue on the wing quite 

 as long as any female. 



