HONEY-PRODUGING CATERPILLARS. 
ATE in June, growing abundantly in the edges of 
woods throughout this region, may be seen the 
Cimicifuga racemosa of botanists, popularly called Rattle- 
weed, or Black Snakeroot. It sends up a stalk, sometimes 
branching, four or five feet, terminating in a spike or spikes, 
six to ten inches long, of round, greenish-white buds, which 
stand upon short stems, and are arranged in rows about the 
stalk, diminishing in size till they reach the pointed top. 
The lower buds, when they are about the size of an ordinary 
pea, open first, and the flowering proceeds by degrees up the 
spike, so that buds are to be met with throughout a period 
of from four to six weeks. The flowers emit an intensely 
sweet odor, which renders them attractive to butterflies 
and bees. 
But should you examine these buds with care, you will 
find a number of small caterpillars, the larva of the beautiful 
Azure Butterfly, called Lycena pseudargiolus, feeding thereon. 
During its younger stages it is white, and so near the color 
of these buds that it is well protected, and very difficult to 
find. Later on, it may be white or greenish, and often 
diversified with a few black or brown patches, irregularly 
diffused over the surface. 
When mature the larva is one-half of an inch in length, 
and, like all Lycanid larve, is onisciform, or shaped like the 
little pill-bug, so common under stones and logs. The head 
is very small, and is placed on the end of a long, green neck, 
which at the junction is of the thickness of the head, but 
gradually enlarges, and seems to be fixed at the hinder part 
