1910] Field — Basilarchia Proserpina 87 
THE OFFSPRING OF A CAPTURED FEMALE 
BASILARCHIA PROSERPINA. 
By Wit. L. W. FIELD, 
Milton, Mass. 
A female Basilarchia proserpina, taken at Springfield, Vt., 
August 14, 1908, refused to oviposit on the leaves of any available 
species of birch, poplar, or willow, but when furnished with wild 
cherry’ leaves deposited thirty-one eggs, from sixteen of which 
offspring were reared to maturity. Of these offspring, nine (five 
males and four females) closely resembled the mother, and seven 
(four males and three females) were of the white-banded arthemis 
type, called by Edwards (1879) form lamina. 
The accompanying plate shows the mother — much the worse 
for wear after her long captivity — and four of her offspring, a 
pair of each type. The entire series is now in the Museum of 
Comparative Zodlogy at Harvard University. 
These observations, considered in the light of the Mendelian 
principles of heredity, give fresh support to the view of Scudder 
(1889) and others, who have believed proserpina to be a hybrid 
between arthemis and astyanaz. The observed facts accord with 
those noted by Edwards, who in 1877 reared three arthemis and 
one proserpina from eggs deposited by a proserpina captured in 
the Catskill region; and in addition they bring out some new points: 
First, the evidence of proserpina’s hybridity furnished by her 
choice of an astyanax food-plant. In the opinion of collectors gen- 
erally, the occurrence of a Basilarchia larva upon wild cherry 
plausibly identifies it as astyanax; and I find no record of the use 
of this food-plant by arthemis. 
Second, some basis for a guess as to the specific identity of her 
mate. Springfield, Vt., is north of the zone in which proserpina 
ordinarily occurs, and it seems probable that the male parent of 
this diverse brood was of the arthemis (lamina) type. 
Third, the approximately even division of the offspring between 
the two types, in a region where proserpina has heretofore been 

1 Prunus serotina. 
