GROWTH AND TRANSFORMATIONS OF INSECTS 63 



The life of the spiny elm caterpillar (Euvanessa antiopa). Com- 

 plete metamorphosis. What boy does not remember, when the first 

 warm days of spring lured him to a tramp in the woods, that a large, 

 dark purple, yellow-bordered butterfly, usually found sipping the sap 

 from a newly cut tree stump, was the first to greet him ? It is one 

 of our commonest butterflies, and we have translated its German 

 name of Trauermantel to " mourning cloak butterfly," though it is 

 also often known as the Antiopa 

 butterfly, from its specific name. It 

 is a most cosmopolitan insect, occur- 

 ring throughout North America as 

 far south as Mexico and Florida, and 

 is found over northern Europe and 

 in Asia. 



Egg laying. Unlike most butter- 

 flies it hibernates over winter, which 

 accounts for its early and often some- 

 what battered appearance in spring. 1 

 When the leaves of the elm and poplar 

 are nearly expanded, the female may 

 be found laying her eggs upon the 

 twigs of elm, poplar, and willow. 

 Standing with wings spread, she de- 

 posits the eggs in clusters around the 

 twig, as shown in Fig. 81, a. In about 

 two weeks the small, blackish cater- 

 pillars emerge through round holes FlG ' 82 ' Eggs of the spin y elm 



caterpillar, or mourning cloak 



eaten out of the upper surface of the butterfly, on willow twig 



eggs, and crawl to the nearest leaf, 



where they range themselves side by 



side, with their heads toward the margin of the leaf. Feeding in 



this position, they nibble the green surface of the leaf but leave 



the network of veins untouched. 



Larva, or caterpillar. They continue to feed side by side for 

 about a week, marching in processions from leaf to leaf as the food 

 supply is exhausted. Each little caterpillar spins a silken thread 



1 We are indebted, for much of the life history, to the account given by 

 Dr. C. M. Weed in Bulletin 67, New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station. 



(Photograph by Weed) 



