THE TRIBE OF THE LARGER SKIPPERS 271 



siderable room. It leaves one end open as a door out of 

 which the caterpillar crawls to feed at night upon near-by 

 leaves, returning to the house for shelter during the day. 

 They continue to use this habitation until they are 

 full grown as caterpillars and sometimes they change to 

 chrysalids within it. More commonly, however, they 

 crawl away both from the leafy case and the tree that 

 bears it and find such shelter as they can upon the ground 

 near by. Here they spin slight silken cocoons within 

 which they change to chrysalids. In the more Northern 

 states there is but one brood a year, so these chrysalids 

 remain in position until early the following summer when 

 they come forth as butterflies. Farther south there are 

 two broods each summer, the second brood of butterflies 

 appearing chiefly in August. 



The Silver-spotted Skipper derives its name from the 

 distinct silvery spots upon the under-wing surface against 

 a background of dark brown. The butterflies appear in 

 the Northern states early in June and remain upon the 

 wing for several weeks, being found even in August. 

 They fly very rapidly and are difficult to catch in an in- 

 sect net except when they are visiting flowers. 



This species is widely distributed, occurring from ocean 

 to ocean over nearly the whole of the United States. It 

 extends into Canada only in the eastern part and is not 

 found in the Northwestern states. 



The Long-tailed Skipper 



Eudamus proteus 



This ,'s perhaps the most easily recognized of all the 

 Skipp-'~ found in the United States for it is the only one 



