ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. $7 



The eggs are pale yellow, smooth and spherical except that the base is considerably 

 flattened, and are attached mostly to the upper surface of the leaves, but sometimes to 

 the lower side and on the stem and a few were on surrounding objects including a stick 

 which lay across the rocks and on the rock itself. 



Before hatching the egg becomes slate color. The larva has already been described 

 and is so like P. asterias in all its stages that I could observe no points by which the two 

 species could be distinguished. 



I sent some larvae to Dr. Fyles at Levis and some eggs to Mr. Brainerd of Montreal, 

 keeping a few eggs myself, and of these the first hatched August 1 5th and the first chrys- 

 alis was formed August 31st, making a larval period of 16 days — a remarkably short one, 

 as Scudder observes, for such a high latitude. A number of larvae and eggs were found 

 during the whole of my stay and when I examined the plants for the last time on the 

 28th the full grown larvae were crawling over newly laid eggs, and larvae of all sizes 

 were side by side. 



The first butterfly I saw was on the afternoon of the 14th, a little way back from the 

 shore, but I afterwards found that the foodplant grew in a ditch in the same field. I 

 failed to capture this female, and saw no more until the following Sunday (21st) when a 

 party of us went to Tache's Point, a rocky promentary covered with trees, about a quarter 

 of a mile north of the church. Several broken males were caught, but not having my 

 net I could not catch the few that were in good condition. After lunch I returned with 

 my net and caught one male in fair condition, and a number that were otherwise. On the 

 22nd I took a run on my bicycle along the main road towards Riviere du Loup, and got 

 off at the bridge crossing the St. Paschel river, and followed the dyke, which the farmers 

 have built to keep the sea out of their fields, and along the dyke the Archangelica grows 

 in profusion. Eggs and larvae were plentiful, but in no case more than four larvae on one 

 plant. I put my net together and waited for butterflies, but a strong wind was blowing 

 which almost made me give up for the day, when a female flattered through the fields, 

 stopping to lay an egg here and there. I saw that the specimen was a damaged one, and 

 thought that it would be best to watch it for a while, so got into a ditch where the 

 food plant was most abundant, and the butterfly soon settled close to me and laid an egg 

 on the top of a leaf, then went underneath and laid another, and finally crawled down 

 the stem, or rather backed down, laying a third egg at the juncture of the three footstalks 

 of the leaves. As it was flying off I caught it and boxed the eggs. Two of these 

 hatched August 31st, the third did not hatch, although the larva was fully formed 

 within. The egg stage is thus about nine days, and from laying of eggs to chrysalis is 

 less than a month under favorable circumstances. 



Regarding the feeding habits of larvae, Scudder says (authority Mead) that " they 

 are very susceptible to cold, prolonged darkness, or confinement of any kind, and 

 when not feeding they either rest on the leaves in full sunlight or bask on the hot 

 stones." My experience at Metis and Kamouraska does not corroborate these state- 

 ments, for not having any proper breeding cages with me I kept my larvse in the ab- 

 solutely light-proof boxes used for photographic plates, and though I had at times as 

 many as sixty in a box, I never had a healthier lot of larvse. The young larvae when 

 at rest certainly lie on the top of the leaves in the sunshine, though you will rarely find 

 a full-grown one in this position, but search the stem and the old ones are easily seen s 

 and smelt too. Several times I visited the plants before breakfast, about 6.30 a.m., 

 and found that all were at work and none at all on the stems, and on August 26th 

 some were seen feeding at 8.30 p.m., though moonlight is not good for observation of 

 this kind. 



In the chrysalis there are two distinct forms, the green and yellow, and the light 

 and dark brown, and I find that all my larvae which suspended themselves on stems of 

 the plant have produced green pupae, while those that crawled into boxes and shelters 

 that I provided for them have assumed the brown form. 



The species is regarded as single brooded, quoting Scudder again, " flying in June and 

 the first half of July, and is most abundant the latter half of June. Eggs have been ob- 



