116 BUTTERFLIES 



Fritillary, carrying over from the north some of its peculiar 

 beauty and connecting with the equally distinctive beauty 

 of the tropical south. 



Like so many other southern butterflies the eggs of this 

 species are laid upon the leaves of passion vines. The 

 caterpillars develop very rapidly and when matured are 

 yellowish or brownish yellow, striped with darker lines 

 along the back and sides. There are black branching 

 spines, arranged in rows beginning on the head and run- 

 ning backward on the body. The w^hole cycle of life from 

 egg to butterfly may take place within the short period of a 

 month and one brood succeeds another in so irregular and 

 rapid a fashion that it is difficult to determine definitely 

 the number of broods in a season. 



The Variegated Fritillary 



Euptoieta claudia 



There is something in the appearance of the upper sur- 

 face of this butterfly that suggests the other Fritillaries 

 on the one hand and the Emperors on the other. The 

 coloring and marking is a bit like the former and the 

 shape of the wings like the latter. The general color is 

 a golden brown with darker markings arranged in bands 

 and eye-spots in a rather complicated pattern. The 

 under surface, so far as it is exposed when the butterfly 

 is at rest, is a beautiful marbled combination of gray and 

 brown which is probably distinctly obliterative in the 

 haunts of these insects. The front wings have the outer 

 margin concave in the middle, giving a special prominence 

 to the shape of each front outer angle. 



