NYMPHALID.l!:. 267 



and varieties or closely allied forms are found in New Zealand and 

 Australia. It does seem strange indeed in a land where the trees, 

 flowers, birds and mannnals are all new to one and where every few 

 steps bring one in contact with something never before seen, to 

 suddenly come upon a bright little butterfly as well known as the 

 faces of one's near relatives, and looking, like the other iidiabitants 

 of the country, perfectly at liome. It is like meeting a friend of 

 one's childliood in a distant land. 



The insect is double-brooded in our latitude, the butterflies of the 

 flrst brood making their appearance early in June and others later 

 in August. Flowers are very attractive to this insect, and in 

 favored seasons a patch of the second growth of clover will be found 

 a good hunting ground for them. They are agile and restless 

 creatures, seldom remaining long in one spot, and flying ver}- rapidly 

 when once alarmed. In neglected pastures, where thistles, the food 

 plant of the larva, abound, one may usually look for this insect with 

 good prospects of finding it plentiful. The species is very common 

 in Tennessee, and the largest and finest specimens I have ever seen 

 came from tliat State. In fact, those from which the transfers for 

 tl-iis work were made are from that region. 



Besides the thistle the caterpillar feeds on the leaves of the 

 burdock and sunflower, and with silken webs curls over the edge of 

 the leaf beneath which it lives and feeds, finally, as in the preceding 

 species rendering its home uninhabitable and constructing a new 

 one. The caterpillar is dark brown or black striped with yellowish 

 brown on the sides, and is armed with many branching spines of a 

 gray color tipped with black. The chrysalis, which is often sus- 

 pended from the under side of a leaf of its food plant, is an exceed- 

 ingly beautiful object, being brown or purple brown with spots of 

 burnished gold on its sides and back, and looking more like a 

 jewelled ear-ring than the nj'mph of a butterfly. 



Another butterfly closel}^ related to the preceding and looking 

 much like it in all three stages of its existence is Pyrameis Jmntera. 

 In habits it also much resembles Pyrameis cardui^ while the cater- 

 pillar feeds on the same plants. When fresh and perfect this is one 

 of the most beautiful of butterflies, the rings and lines on the under 

 side of the wings of delicate tints being arranged in a very pleasing- 

 manner. This insect is found over all of temperate North America, 

 and with Pyrameis eardui and Pyrameis atalanta is frequently seen 

 in the fields of clover and on the blossoms of the thistle. 



