NYMPHALTD^. 269 



In the genus Vanessa the insects are of medium size, and their 

 wings are notched or somewhat anguhir in outline. Tliey inhabit 

 the temperate regions of the earth and are strong and liardy butter- 

 flies, frequently withstanding the rigors of a semi-arctic winter in a 

 torpid state and reappearing the first warm daj'S among the earlier 

 harbingers of spring. 



The Vanessa antiopa is one of our commonest and best known 

 butterflies, and, from the ease with which the larvae are gathered and 

 reared, it is one of the first insects with which the beginner is likely 

 to become acquainted in all its stages. 



The butterflies, ver}- worn and faded, make their appearance early 

 in the spiing, coming out from their winter quarters, whei'e they 

 have hibernated among heaps of stones, beneath the loosened bark of 

 decayed trees, etc., frequently before the snow has left the ground in 

 the forests. 



The females lay their eggs in clusters on the twigs of the poplar, 

 elm and willow and on hatching out the dark colored, spiny larvae 

 live a gregarious existence until they are full grown, when they 

 separate and, descending the tree on which they have lived, suspend 

 themselves by the posterior legs to a mat of silk spun beneath the 

 projecting point of a rock in a stone wall, or under the top board of 

 some fence, to await their transformation to the chrysalis state. 

 These larvae frequently damage the shade-trees in our suburban 

 towns to no small extent. 



The larva when fully grown is dark brown in color with a row of 

 red spots running down the middle of the back. It is covered with 

 formidable branching spines, and the caterpillars are often clustered 

 together on a branch in such a mass as to make it bend down with 

 their weight. One will often see the sidewalks sprinkled with their 

 droppings, the branches overhead being stripped of tlieir leaves by 

 these insects. 



The chrysalis is angular and spiny, of a browni or purple brown 

 color, with rows of reddish colored tubercles on the back of the 

 abdomen. 



If one wishes to watch the transformation from larva to chrysalis 

 and from chrysalis to butterfly, there is no insect, to my knowledge, 

 where the whole process is so easily studied. The caterpillars may 

 be procured by the hundred when nearly full grown, and by putting 

 them in a roomy box with a few handfuls of fresh leaves one will 

 have the satisfaction of seeinor them attach themselves to the cover 



