ROVING BUTTERFLIES. 315 



bodies ; whereas the Butterfly, maid or matron, is furnished 

 with a pair to the full as ample as those of her suitor or her 

 mate. 



Not always satisfied with their transits from field to field 

 and flower to flower, certain families of the Butterfly race seem 

 seized occasionally with a perfect mania for visiting countries 

 beyond the sea ; but whether among the immense assemblages 

 which collect for this purpose, females are included, would 

 seem a doubtful point. By staying, as usual, at home, they 

 would at all events be no losers on such occasions, the greater 

 number of winged adventurers being supposed to perish in 

 their passage across the ocean. 



Many Butterflies have a wide geographical range, and one 

 of them, the Painted Lady,* is remarkable for being a denizen 

 of each quarter of the globe. "With us, this elegant insect 

 is in some seasons plentiful, in others rare. Its spiny cater- 

 pillar is a feeder on spiny leaves, those chiefly of the great 

 spear-thistle. Thistles, by the way, even way-side thistles, 

 acquire in our sight a thousand piquant charms as soon as we 

 begin to notice insects. We have just seen in its leaves the 

 nursery of the Painted Lady, one of our prettiest Butterflies, 

 and they afford the same to one of our prettiest Beetles, the 

 little green Tortoise. Its honey-scented flower is a load-star of 

 attraction to a humming host of Hymenoptera, while to some 

 of them, most often to the red-hipped Humble-bee, it affords 



* Cynthia Cardui. 



