THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



29 



beautiful green chrysalis, ornamented with black 

 and gold spots (Fig. 21.) Two weeks after- 

 wards the butterfly (Fig. 22) emerges, leaving 

 the transparent silvery chrysalis skin still at- 

 tached to the leaf. 



Vast flights of butterflies have often been 

 noticed passing over the country in dififerent 

 parts of Europe, and as the following will show 

 such flocks seem to appear almost every year 

 in some part or other of the United States : 



A flock of butterflies four miles long, recently pas- 

 sed over one of the inland towns of California, for the 

 North.— A^. Y. Semi- weehly Tribune, July ib, 186h. 



A Mend informed us that when traveling through 

 a portion of the county of York last summer, he met 

 with Immense swarms of these butterflies, all proceed- 

 ing westward, and lorming a column of three or four 

 mSes in length . He estimated their number at some 

 millions. — Canada Farmer, March 1st, 1866, speahing 

 of Cynthia cardui, a f pedes whose larva feeds on the com- 

 mon thistle . 



On the 19th of September, 1868, P. B. Sibley, 

 of St. Joseph, Mo., sent us a specimen of Danais 

 archippus, with a statement that he saw mil- 

 lions of them filling the air to the height of 



[Fig. 22-] 



Color»— Orange, red and black. 



three or four hundred feet, for several hours, 

 flying from North to South, and quite as numer- 

 ous as the locusts (grasshoppers) had been the 

 year before. 



The cause of their thus congregating in such 

 numbers has hitherto remained, and probably 

 ever will remain a mystery. Insects, otherwise 

 solitary in their habits, sometimes congregate 

 thus, for the purpose of emigration; but in 

 the present instance, their being seen in such 

 numbers may be accounted for by the weather 

 of July and August being favorable to the well- 

 being of the caterpillar. 



No alarm need be felt at these hosts of butter- 

 flies, for they themselves are incapable of doing 

 any injui-y, while their caterpillars cannot be 

 considered injurious, feeding as they do on a 

 useless weed. We found them plentiful last 

 month on plants of the Asclepias curassavica 

 that were being cultivated in a flower garden, 

 but they were easily picked off. 



THE BUGHUNTER IN EGYPT. 



A JOURNAL OF AN ENTOMOLOGICAL TOUR INTO 

 SOUTH ILLINOIS BY THE SENIOR EDITOR. 



(CONCLUDBD PBOM NO. 1, PAGB 14.) 



Ten Acres of Vineyard— Native Wines— More Vine- 

 yards and More Wines— The Bogas May-bug. 



June 20th. 

 On the preceding evening, after missing our 

 road through a perfect wilderness of heavy tim- 

 ber, we had at length reached the hospitable home 

 of Mr. Jas. E. Starr, at Elsah, in Jersey county, 

 and taken up our quarters there for the night. 

 Early this morning we sally forth to see ten 

 acres of the most splendid vineyai'd that I ever 

 came across; and what is stranger still, this 

 vineyard of Mr. Starr's is located upon old up- 

 land ground, which has been in cultivation for 

 forty years, without a single forkful of manure 

 ever having been put upon it. According to the 

 proprietor, who has almost all the leading varie- 

 ties of grape on trial here, Norton's Virginia is 

 infested by the Leaf-hop 

 per, or so-called "Thrip," 

 worse than any other vari- 

 ety ; and this insect does 

 the most damage in those 

 portions of the vineyard 

 which adjoin the timber. 

 As to the other insects 

 found here, and they were 

 not many, they will be 

 noticed hereafter. 



This is certainly the land 

 of the grape-vine. Mr. 

 Starr has a large under- 

 ground cellar, piled up with cask upon cask 

 of the choicest vintages — Norton's Virginia, 

 Delaware, Catawba, &c.— and every sample 

 which the Committee on Wines tastes seems 

 superior to that which preceded it. Finally 

 the Committee, having taken leave of its kind 

 host, mounts into its buggy, chairman Hull 

 taking the reins ; and, from some unaccountable 

 cause, we lose our way once more in making for 

 the residence of Messrs. A. and F. Starr, some 

 five or six miles from Alton, where we propose 

 to take dinner. Here we have to inspect more 

 vineyards, and the Committee on Wines is again 

 called into active sei-vice. We have now tasted 

 in all some fifteen or sixteen different varieties 

 of wine, including a sample of Dr. Hull's brew- 

 ing before we left home ; and, as junior member 

 of the Committee, I can honestly say that there 

 is but one out of the whole lot, that would not 

 be pronounced a good light, dry wine by the 

 best judges in Europe. 



