WITH FUR THER HIS TORIES. 1 73 



March.* The females appear a few days later 

 than the males, and may be found on peach, 

 apple, and wild-plum blossoms, while the males 

 are to be seen by the water-side or upon the road, 

 rarely upon flowers. The caterpillars feed upon 

 papaw, and as this tree is one of the latest in put- 

 ting forth its leaves, two or three weeks elapse 

 after the appearance of the butterflies before the 

 young shoots of the food-plant are visible ; but 

 no sooner do these appear than the females 

 hasten to deposit their eggs and continue to do 

 so until toward the end of May ; the eggs hatch 

 in seven or eight days and the caterpillars are 

 from twenty-two to twenty -nine days in attaining 

 their growth. Te]amonides, a later variety of the 

 same brood, as already explained, begins to fly 

 some weeks after Walshii, and both forms are for 

 a time common ; the eggs of the former variety 

 are sooner laid, and hatch in four or five days ; 

 the caterpillars, too, mature more quickly, attain- 

 ing their growth in from fifteen to eighteen days, 

 the earlier ones often overtaking their tardier 

 predecessors. About the first of June Walshii 

 disappears, and before the end of the month Tela- 

 monides also ; at the beginning of this same 

 month Marcellus appears and continues abundant 

 through the season. The successive broods of 



* Reference is made to the season in West Virginia. 



OF THE 



UNIVERSITY 



