6cS 



from the laying. On June 6th, I received a lot of young larvae, and 

 at least one hundred eggs. Mr. Wright says : ' ' These eggs are easiest 

 to get of any; the females confined in bags lay all over the bags, or on 

 sticks, and they want no shade. I set the plant close to the window, 

 and the butterflies like the sun and will not lay without it. ' ' P'oUow- 

 ing the first lot, of May, I gave the young larvae leaves of Scrophularia, 

 which Mr. Wright had sent me, and which came in good condition, 

 and also gave Chelo?ie, and the latter was preferred by them. They 

 were kept in a half-pint glass, and showed a tendency to do much 

 spinning, though not to make a regular web. On i6th, the day being 

 fine, and some larvas near their first moult, I put several out of doors, 

 on the terminal leaves of a plant of Chelone, in my garden, to see their 

 behavior. They at once went to work, and next day had spun to- 

 gether the leaves and were concealed within. Four days later we had 

 a cold rain, and the web was broken, and I could see but two or three 

 of the larvae; the others seemed to have been swept away. But, on 

 23d, weather wet and cold, I found the whole colony lying snug be- 

 tween two leaves, as well protected as if under a slate roof The 24th 

 was fine, and I put out nearly all the remaining larvcne, putting them 

 close by the others, within leaves pinned together. I did this, sup- 

 posing they would soon find their fellows, and that the two lots would 

 unite. But they continued separate, and formed two light webs, 

 nothing like so close as the web of Phaeton. So they passed two 

 moults, adding to the web as it became necessary, taking in one leaf 

 after another along the stem. On 29th came a furious rain storm, and 

 on examining the webs during the storm, the older one was found to 

 be quite empty, the larvae probably having gone down the stem to 

 ground. The other was broken, and the larvae were busy repairing, 

 but there evidently were not enough of them to do the work in a proper 

 manner. After this these larvae gave up living in their web, and re- 

 turned to it from feeding, gathering in a cluster on the outside. There 

 had originally been about fifty, but they were now reduced to half a 

 dozen; all past third moult. On nth July there were but two visible, 

 and these I brought into the house and put in glass. One of them 

 shordy after passed third moult, and both soon went into lethargy be- 

 tween two leaves, and are so passing the winter. Part of these larvae 

 I had kept in the house and followed their stages. In this way I have 

 the complete history, first from it^g<g to hibernation after third moult; 

 then from hibernation to pupation, two moults being passed. 



It so happened that I had at same time a lot of Phaeton feeding, and 

 under very peculiar circumstances. Formerly, larvie of Phaeton were 

 found in a small swamp about two miles from my house, near the 

 Kanawha River, the only locality in this region known to me for the 

 species. In 1878 came a flood, which exceeded anything known in this 

 valley, oxerflowing a large part of the river bottoms. This swamp was 



