HACKBERRY BUTTERFLIES. 



603 



lu the latitude of St. Louis it is not until the middle of June that 

 the first butterflies begin to appear, and by the end of the month the 

 globular, delicate, longitudinally ribbed eggs may be found on the 

 under side of a leaf, either singly or in small clusters. 



The young larva in hatching pushes open the crown, which lifts like 

 a cap. The first summer brood of worms feeds for rather less than a 

 month, when they transform and give out the second brood of butter- 

 flies during August. 



The eggs laid by these in due time hatch, and the young larva is 

 more lethargic than that of the first brood, feeds with less vigor, devel- 

 ops much more slowly, and, after passing through the second or third 

 molt, ceases to eat, shrinks in size, and remains stationary on the under 

 side of the leaf. It also changes from its fresh green color to a dingy 

 grayish-brown, and eventually, with its dying support, falls to the 

 ground and there hibernates. 



Fig. 197. Apatura celtis : f, egg, magnified ; g, larva, lateral 

 Tiew; h, imago, underside— natural size; i, j, k, I, m, the &V6 

 different larval heads ; n, o, dorsal and lateral views of larval 

 joint — enlarged. After Riley. 



The accompanying figures will so fully illustrate the different stages 

 and transformations that no repetition of description is necessary. 



Parasites. — The only parasite published as attacking this species is 

 the Ophionid, Limner ia fug itiva Say, reared by Mr. W. H, Edwards in 

 West Virginia, and recorded by Mr. L. O. Howard, in Scudder's But- 

 terflies of New England, page 1883. 



In 1874 I found a larva iu the third stage being devoured by Eulo- 

 phus larvse, some of which issued and formed their pupae under my eye, 

 the perfect flies, an undescribed species, issuing on July 13, of that 

 year. I have reared quite abundantly from the chrysailis of this species 

 the large Chalcis flavipes Fabr. and an undescrib ^d Tachinid, while one 

 of my old correspondents, Mr. George W. Letterman, of Allentown, 

 Missouri, once brought me specimens of Podisus spinosus which he had 

 found piercing the larva and sucking its juices. 



The egg-parasite and the other parasites reared from Aptura clyton 

 and presently referred to will doubtless be found preying on A. celtis 

 also. 



