THE ANTIOPA BUTTERFLY. 297 



ters very early in spring, often before the snow has entirely 

 left the ground, but with ragged and faded wings ; and may 

 be seen sporting in warm and sheltered spots in the begin- 

 ning of March, and through the months of April and May. 

 Wilson, in his beautiful lines on the blue-bird, alludes to its 

 early coming in the spring, 



" When first the lone butterfly flits on the wing." 



The caterpillars (Fig. 122) of the Antiopa butterfly live 

 together in great numbers on Fig 122 



the poplar, willow, and elm, on 

 which the first broods may be 

 found early in June. They are 

 black, minutely dotted with white, 

 with a row of eight dark brick-red spots on the top of the 

 back. The head is black and rough with projecting points ; 

 the spines, of which there are six or seven on each segment 

 except the first, are black, stiff, and branched, and the inter- 

 mediate legs are reddish. When fully grown they measure 

 an inch and three quarters in length, and appear very for- 

 midable with their thorny armature, which is doubtless in- 

 tended to defend them from their enemies. It was formerly 

 supposed that they were venomous, and capable of inflicting 

 dangerous wounds ; and within my remembrance many per- 

 sons were so much alarmed on this account as to cut down 

 all the poplar-trees around their dwellings. This alarm was 

 unfounded ; for, although there are some caterpillars that 

 have the power of inflicting venomous wounds with their 

 spines and hairs, this is not the case with those of the An- 

 tiopa butterfly. The only injury which can be laid to their 

 charge is that of despoiling of their foliage some of our 

 most ornamental trees, and this is enough to induce us to 

 take all proper measures for exterminating the insects, short 

 of destroying the trees that they infest. I have sometimes 

 seen them in such profusion on the willow and elm, that the 

 limbs bent under their weight, and the long leafless branches, 



38 



