NO. 7 THE GOLD-BANDED SKIPPER CLARK 25 



It is unsuspicious and not easily frightened. If missed by the net 

 it flies away, but sooner or later returns to the same place, just as 

 the species of Thorybes do when on their playgrounds. 



It feeds most commonly on the flowers of Hydrangea arborescens, 

 which is common on the lower slopes of the hillsides where its food 

 plant grows, but is sometimes seen on the flowers of the button-bush 

 (CephalantJms occidentalis) in bogs near the woods, and on the flowers 

 of the iron weed (Vernonia glaiica) along woodland paths. 



It is the most sluggish, the least suspicious, and the easiest to 

 catch of all our skippers. Even two males engaged in combat seem to 

 take only a half-hearted interest in the proceeding and seldom rise 

 more than a foot or so above the normal flight plane. Their move- 

 ments as a rule entirely lack the dashing energy of those of the males 

 of other skippers under similar conditions. But on occasion they will 

 develop unsuspected vigor. 



In its habits the gold-banded skipper resembles the species of 

 Thorybes more closely than it does any other of our larger skippers, 

 but is somewhat less energetic and more retiring, keeping mainly in 

 and near undergrowth. It is at once distinguishable on the wing from 

 Epargyreus tityrus and Achalarus lyciades by its slower and much 

 less irregular flight, as well as by its habit of keeping always near the 

 ground and dodging through the undergrowth. 



But Achalarus lyciades is a less energetic flier than Epargyreus 

 tityrus and does not fly so high, its flight being intermediate between 

 that of the latter and that of the gold-banded skipper. Indeed, once 

 or twice I have found that what I thought were two belligerent males 

 of Achalarus lyciades were in reality males of Rhabdoides cellus. 



EGGS 

 Plate 4, fig. 17 ; plate 6, figs. 28, 29 ; text figs. A-D, p. 26 



The eggs are fastened on the under side of the leaflet in its outer 

 half. They are usually nearer the midrib than the edge, and are always 

 placed in the intervals between the veins, where they are pressed down 

 upon and glued firmly to the short hooked bristles. Although most of 

 the eggs are found in the middle third of the leaflet, longitudinally, a 

 few are nearer the edge. But they are always in the outer half of the 

 leaflet, and between the veins. 



The eggs are laid almost invariably on the large leaflets toward the 

 base of the plant and are only exceptionally found on the small leaflets 

 near the summit. More or less isolated plants, and especially those 

 growing along paths or open spots, are preferred to those growing in 



