PSYCHE. 



ORGAN OF THE CAMBRIDGE ENTOMOLOGICAL CLUB 



EDITED BY GEORGE DIMMOCK AND B. PICKMAN MANN. 



Vol. II.] Cambridge, Mass., Sept.-^Dec, 18T8. [Nos. 53-56. 

 Life History of Danais Arcliippus. 



Danais archippus Smitli-Abbot, i, pi. 6. Danaida pLexippus Scudder, 

 Psyche, i, p. 81. 



As authors have differed much in their accounts of this 

 species, I propose to relate here simply what I have myself ob- 

 served. 



In this part of West Virginia, D. archippus is, I have reason 

 to believe, four-brooded, and the butterflies of the last brood, 

 and these alone, hibernate. The survivors appear very early 

 in the next spring, and are always faded and more or less bro- 

 ken. They may be seen on the blossoms of the wild plum, the 

 last of March, and on lilacs and other flowering shrubs in 

 April. The females deposit their eggs the last of April and 

 early in May on the leaves of different species of Asclepias, 

 beginning as soon as the plants are well out of the gi'ound, and 

 tliereafter, without doubt, soon die, after the manner of their 

 kind. I have watched carefully, later in the season, for worn 

 and faded individuals, which could possibly have hibernated, 

 and tlie latest date at which I have seen such was 2 June, 

 when I took one that bore every appearance of consider- 

 able age. The ovaries were found to be empty of eggs. 

 Every female from which I have obtained eggs in confinement, 

 later than May, and all those which I have noticed as they 

 were ovipositing in natural state, have been fresh colored, and 

 evidently not long from chrysalis ; so that I have no idea that 

 this species differs in this respect from other butterflies. One 

 brood of D. archippus succeeds another the season through, 

 tlie females of each brood depositing their eggs within two or 



