June iSSS.] 



PSYCHE. 



65 



for on the supposition that they were 

 produced from eggs hiid by the older 

 females of the first brood of colonists. 

 For the observer will notice that eggs 

 are laid by butterflies both in a fairly 

 fresh condition and also by those which 

 have been upon the wing a long time, 

 and the closest observations I have been 

 able to give through many summers 

 both of butterflies seen in the act of 

 depositing their eggs and of the con- 

 tents of the ovaries of others, lead me 

 strongly to the conviction that this but- 

 terfly requires more than a brief time 

 for oviposition, the eggs maturing by 

 degrees and not being fully laid until 

 the butterfly has been upon the wing 

 about an entire month. The examina- 

 tion of butterflies fresh from the chrys- 

 alis sliows that the eggs are never 

 entirely mature at this time, while on 

 the other hand these butterflies retain 

 their freshness of appearance for a 

 longer time than usual after they have 

 come from the chrysalis. That there 

 is easily time for a second brood of but- 

 terflies from eggs laid by the progeny 

 of the first colonists (basing our judg- 

 ment upon the facts as given us by Mr. 

 Edwards in the south), there can be 

 little doubt, but the proot of such a 

 second brood has yet to be given. 

 While, therefore, I am compelled by the 

 facts that have been advanced since my 

 former account of this species was 

 published to modify my views in one re- 

 spect, I am still inclined to think it in 

 the main correct, viz., that this butterfly 

 is normally single brooded throughout 



the larger part of New England ; l)ut 

 that it requires an annual visitation of 

 colonists from the south to exist at all^ 

 the hibernating butterflies perishing 

 annually, almost to an individual. 



Mr. Edwards entertains a diflerent 

 opinion regarding its life history in 

 New England and does not believe that 

 the butterflies which have hibernated 

 perish to any such extent as I have pre- 

 sumed ; and, because single instances 

 of hibernating butterflies have been 

 found in Massachusetts, he considers 

 that "this settles the matter." But he 

 fails to mention the fact that during the 

 year 1887 when one observer found two 

 of these hibernating butterflies in May 

 at Amherst, this observer (Mr. Marsh), 

 who was constantly on the watch for 

 this butterfly, discovered but these two 

 specimens in the season, while a num- 

 ber of Mr. Edwards' New England cor- 

 respondents, whom he had similarly 

 put upon a special search, were unable 

 to find any ; nor does he take note of 

 the fact that Amherst, the only place in 

 which these hibernating butterflies have 

 yet been found in so northern a latitude 

 as Massachusetts, is in the Connecticut 

 valley, wheie the isotherms trend north- 

 ward ; and which is but a comparatively 

 short distance north of those parts of 

 southern Connecticut, in the valley of 

 the same river, where it is not improba- 

 ble that successfully hibernating butter- 

 flies may be found in all favorable 

 years ; nor is he perhaps aware that the 

 valley of this river is one in which 

 southern butterflies find their way far- 



