350 Canadian Butterflies. 



and four clots near the apex, white, between which and the margin 

 is a pale broken rivulet. Beyond the middle of the hindwings is 

 a slender interrupted brown bar, succeeded by four indistinct eye- 

 lets, a black submarginal bar, and two very slender submarginal 

 dark lines. But the great beauty of the insect consists in the 

 underside of the wings, the anterior being elegantly varied with 

 white, brown and black, with two eyes near the apex. The disk of 

 the hind wings is white, with the veins and many lines and bars of 

 brown ; these form a double scallop beyond the middle of the 

 wing, succeeded by a white bar of the same form ; the terminal 

 part of the wing being brown and ornamented by two very large 

 eyes, margined with black ; between these and the margin is a 

 bar, and two dark thin marginal lines."* 



These two species much resemble each other ; but can be dis- 

 tinguished without difficulty by the marking of the underside of 

 the hind wdngs. C. cardui has five ocelli or eye-like spots be- 

 neath ; while C. huntera has only two, but much larger. 



As before stated, we have not seen the caterpillar, and the seve- 

 ral authors describe it differently. Drury says it is green, with 

 black rings round the body. According to Boisduval and Laconte 

 it is blackish-grey, striped with yellow ; while Abbot says it is 

 brown with a yellow lateral line. 



It occurs in most of the Southern and "Western States, and is 

 said to appear once in five or six years in great abundance, while 

 at other times it is scarce. 



As yet we have no published observations upon the natural 

 history of the above two species of insects in any Canadian work. 

 The foreign authors do not give many reliable details. In fact, 

 with regard to all our Lepidoptera it may be stated that not one 

 species is perfectly known. We need not be surprised at this, 

 because even in England, where there are perhaps more enthu- 

 siastic collectors and more good observers than in any other part 

 of the world of the same extent, the natural history of the sixty- 

 five species of butterflies found in the country is not complete. 

 Upon this subject Mr. Stainton, editor of the Entomologist's 

 Annual, makes the following remarks : — * 



"A recent writer in the ' New Quarterly Review ' has remark- 

 ed : — ' The metamorphoses of the British butterflies, of which 

 there are only about sixty-five, are proportion ably less known 



* "Westood's Btitish Butterflies, p. 57. 



* See Stainton's British Butterflies and Moths, page. 70 



