NO. 7 THE GOLD-BANDED SKIPPER — CLARK 21 



Previous records for the District of Columbia and its immediate 

 vicinity are: June 23, 1920 (Ernest Shoemaker) ; June 24, 1925 (F. 

 M. Schott) ; and June 25, 1889 (E. Shoemaker). These records, 

 combined with our experience, seem to warrant the statement that the 

 maximum abundance is reached about June 24. 



We noticed that this skipper is very seldom seen in the morning, 

 appearing only after midday and flying until almost dusk. This habit 

 of appearing in wet hollows near water in the afternoon suggested that 

 the true habitat of the butterfly was somewhere else. Presumably it is 

 active in its home territory during the morning, but in the heat of the 

 afternoon seeks out the wettest places it can find. If it were a swamp 

 or a bog butterfly, as has been supposed, it would certainly be present 

 in wet localities in the morning. All of our swamp and bog butterflies, 

 and all of its relatives in this region, are active in the morning. 



Another thing we noticed was that the females soon get the hind 

 wings badly frayed, and old females commonly have the posterior half 

 of the hind wings completely worn away. The prompt fraying of 

 the hind wings of the females appeared to be good evidence that they 

 were engaged in depositing their eggs on some plant, the leaves of 

 which are exceedingly rough on the under side. They were not de- 

 positing their eggs on any minutely soft downy plant, such as Breweria 

 aqiiatka, on which the caterpillar was figured by John Abbot, or on 

 any of its local relatives. 



In walking through the woods near the marshy expansion of the 

 little stream where we had seen the insect most frequently, we noted 

 a certain spot high up on the hillside where we always saw one or two 

 in passing. Dr. Rawson also found several feeding on Hydrangea on 

 the hillside immediately above the stream. Both of these spots are 

 abundantly overgrown with the hog-peanut, Falcata (or Amphicarpa) 

 pitcheri, the leaves of which are extremely rough on the under side, 

 bearing very numerous strong hooked hairs. 



On July I one of these plants, growing high up on the hillside at 

 the place where in passing we had frequently seen individual examples 

 of the butterfly, was found to be much eaten, and on its larger leaflets 

 we found a score or more of little shelters difi^ering from the shelters 

 described for any of our skippers. In these shelters eight skipper 

 caterpillars were found, in the third, fourth, and fifth stages, differing 

 from any described caterpillars, and we also found the empty shell 

 of an undescribed egg. 



On July 4 we collected 167 caterpillars in all stages, 46 emijty &gg 

 shells, and 6 eggs, all of which hatched a day or two later. Of the 



