132 SEASONAL CHANGES AND HISTORIES. 



first appears on the wing in the early half of 

 July. As usual among butterflies, the males are 

 seen about a week before the females, but even 

 taking this into account the females live a long 

 while before depositing a single egg ; the earliest 

 record I have of this event is the twenty-second of 

 August, or from five to six weeks after the first ap- 

 pearance of females ; they continue to lay eggs 

 until the end of the first week in September ; and in 

 keeping with this indolence of the females is the 

 duration of the egg-state from three to four 

 weeks, a period longer than in any butterfly 

 known to me where the eggs hatch at all the 

 same season. The earliest caterpillars therefore 

 appear by the middle of September, at which 

 time their food-plant, grass, is still abundant, and 

 plenty of it green and succulent ; yet the habit of 

 the species is fixed, and the larva will exhibit no 

 haste ; it will devour its egg-shell quite as a mat- 

 ter of course, but that digested, it crawls into 

 some corner of a dead stick or a dry leaf and 

 starves till spring-time. Remove it to a warm 

 room and place it among new springing grass ; 

 the result is the same, at least for a time ; I have 

 not tried it very long ; it cannot be cajoled into 

 eating. The further exact history of this insect 

 in New England is unknown, but in West Virginia 

 the chrysalis state continues for a fortnight. In 

 New England the perfect insect appears later in 



