124 MIMICRY IN BOREAL AMERICAN RHOPALOCERA. 



poisons in the larval condition, are poisonous or the contrary, when fed to birds 

 and other animals. Professor Poulton declares that Papilio phiknor has a strong 

 disagreeable scent. This statement is evidently derived from observations made 

 by W. H. Edwards to the same effect. Scudder (9) examined a living male, 

 fresh from the chrysalis, carefully removed the androconia from the patch by 

 scraping it with a knife, thereby bruising them and increasing the chance of odor, 

 but was unable to perceive the very slightest, from the bruised scales, the fold, 

 or the whole creature. The writer has caught a large number of these butterflies 

 but never noticed any odor. We need more light on this point. It is a question 

 that could be very readily settled where the species flies in abundance. Plateau 

 and Wheeler have tasted so-called inedible or distasteful insects and found nothing 

 particularly disagreeable about them. Poulton suggests that the question is not 

 as to the palate of men but concerns the taste of birds, lizards, etc. This is 

 eminently true but Poulton and others use a similar argument in the use of the 

 word pharmacophagus. Neither does it follow that because some plant sub- 

 stances in large dosage will cause nausea and diarrhea in men that they will 

 have the same action on birds after passing through the alimentary canal of the 



larva of a butterfly. 



The three species said by Professor Poulton to mimic, have a great variety 

 of food plants in the larval stage and doubtless among them are some that may 

 be nauseous or poisonous to human beings and possibly more irritating to the 

 stomach than Aristolochia serpentaria. The larva of Papilio glaucus feeds on 

 species of the following genera and probably others not observed: Ptelea, Prunus, 

 Pirus, Cydonia, Crataegus, Styrax, Fraxinus, Syringa, Catalpa, Sassafras, Hamu- 

 lus, Carya, Quercus, Betula, Alnus, Salix. Wild cherry appears to be the favorite 

 in this locality. This plant has medicinal qualities and is used in affections of 

 the bronchi in human beings. It is the black female of the species that is con- 

 sidered a mimic. The larva of Papilio troilus, another one of the mimics, feeds 

 on Benzoin, Magnolia, Xanthoxylum, Prunus, Pirus, Syringa, Sassafras, Ipomcea, 

 Juniperus sabinaria, a coniferous tree. The common food plants are sassalras 

 and spice-bush. The third alleged mimic, Papilio polyxenes asterius, feeds on a 

 great variety of Umbellifera. Scudder says it will probably eat any native or 

 introduced umbelliferous plant. The larva has been found feeding on the follow- 



g g 



__ m Daucus, Hydroctyle, Conium, Cicuta, Sium, Apium, DiscopUw 



Carum, Anethum, Famiculum, Archangelica, Pastinaca, Tiedemannia, and Die 

 nus fraxinella, an introduced plant of the rue family. 



It will be observed that this species in the larval stage sometimes feeds on 

 the poison hemlock, Conium maculatum . This plant is very poisonous to hum 

 beings and fatalities have occurred owing to its resemblance to the narm + e Uo 

 parsley. Why should asterius mimic philenor when some specimens 

 species feed on a plant that is really poisonous to man while philenor feeds 

 species doubtfully poisonous? The food plant that appears to be most f requen 

 in this locality is the wild-carrot. 



the 



a 



