140 



SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT 



on a dingy yellow ground), the better to keep in conformity with that 

 of its dying support, with which, eventually, it falls to the earth, and 

 there hibernates. A heavy snow may cover it many inches deep ; a 

 drenching rain may soak it through and through ; the mercury may 

 sink 22° F. below, or rise 80° above zero; but this little worm is indif- 

 ferent to all, and sleeps a profound torpid sleep from the first of Octo- 

 ber until vegetation starts anew the ensuing spring. The weather 

 in St. Louis is often delightfully mild and even warm long after this 

 larva has gone into winter quarters, but nothing short of the animating 

 breath of the vernal year prompts it to renew the activity it lost the 

 fall before. 



In acquiring its winter habit the joints are greatly contracted, 

 the body becomes somewhat translucent, while the hairs from the 

 papillae become stouter ; and in this condition it has a conchiliform 

 appearance, and strongly recalls the young Thecla larva, or the young 

 larvc© of such Heterocerous genera as Euclea and Adoneta. 



Thus there are two broods each year, but they overlap each other 

 so that a few of the later individuals of the first coexist with the earlier 

 individuals of the second, and the butterllies may be found more or 

 less abundantly from early June till September. 



The larva experiences four molts, so that there are four heads (/, 

 7, ]x\ I) which are shed entire, and a fifth (in) which is split open by 

 the chrysalis and attached to the last larval skin. During the rest 

 preceding each molt the antlers of the new head will be found laid 

 back on the first joint, below the skin. 



THE TAWNY EMFEROR.—Apatiira Herse (Fabr.) 



mg.il.] This butterfly (Figs. 41, 



^ d, and 42, h) is at once 

 distinguished from Lycaoii 

 by its larger average size, 

 more fulvous color and 

 different ornamentation, 

 especially of the front 

 wings. Aside from the 

 sexual characters already 

 given in speaking of the 

 previous species, the male 

 in Herse is generally 

 brighter colored than the female, with the markings, especially of hind 

 wings, much more clearly defined ; so that, instead of the distinct 



ApATtjUA Herse: — o, egii'.<; 6, larva: f, ohiysalis; rf,iniag( 

 male, the cluttcd line showing form of I'emale— all natural size 



