OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 137 



earlier stages of these butterflies, could have looked at them with 

 any degree of care ; and it is quite natural that neither the descriptions 

 in Morris's "Synopsis," which are abridged from the Iconogra^Me,, 

 nor the figures in Glover's unpublished Plates, which are copied from 

 the same, should gain in lucidity. Dr. Asa Fitch* makes a brief 

 allusion to Ilerse, but the information he communicates is evidently 

 obtained from ihe Iconographies ^xxsi mentioned, as it contains the 

 same errors. None of our other standard entomological authors refer 

 to these butterflies, for which reason a few facts regarding them may 

 not be uninteresting. 



They both feed on Hackberry (Celtis), and, so far, I have found 

 them on no other plant. The Hackberry is sufiiciently common in 

 the bottom lands of Missouri, and two tolerably constant forms are 

 easily recognizable: 1 — {occidentalis Linn.) with broad, roughish, 

 sharply serrate leaves, purple-black drupes, and rather pale bark, 

 which on the trunk is rough and strongly cleft so as to look as if 

 hacked; 2 — {Mississippiensis Bosc.) with smaller, narrower, darker 

 leaves, less serrate and often entire, yellow drupes, and darker bark, 

 the trunk appearing knotty. A third form (crassifolia Lam'k), hav- 

 ing most the aspect of Ubnus, occurs less frequently. It is much like 

 occidentalism but with more supple limbs, and rougher, thicker leaves, 

 which, when plucked, wilt much more rapidly than do those of the 

 other forms. Botanists diff"er as to whether these forms are specific 

 or varietal. Dr. Gray refers them all to occidentalism and, as inter- 

 mediate varieties are found and the seedlings from the same tree are 

 exceedingly variable, this seems the proper course. But Prof. Plan- 

 chon, who has monographed the genus, considers 1 and 2 good species, 

 and the third doubtful. The two butterfly larva? I am about to speak 

 of feed indiscriminately on all three, but so far as my experience 

 goes, show a preference for occidentalis. 



THE EYED EMPEROR— ^i^a^Jwra Lycaon (Fabr.) 



During the month of May the larvae of this species may be found 

 on the above-mentioned trees, coming to their full growth, pretty uni- 

 formly, by the end of the month. They are then (Fig. 39; 5, and Fig. 



MN. Y. Rep., §88. 

 10— ER 



