THE NYMPHS 



The Silver-spot Fritillary 



Argynnis aphrodite (Ar-gyn'nis aph-ro-di'te) 



Plate XXI, Fig. 3 



See description of the great spangled fritillary and the table 

 above for the characteristics of this species. 



Caterpillar. — Length one and one-half inches. This cat- 

 erpillar closely resembles that of the preceding species, except 

 that there is a velvety black spot at the base of each spine. 



Food-plant. — Violets. 



When we made our childish observations on 

 the butterflies that had adopted a free silver coin- 

 age we often crept up carefully and seized one of 

 them by his closed wings and counted his "dollars" 

 for him. The ones that we caught were un- 

 doubtedly the silver-spots, for of all the butter- 

 flies that frequent "The Sign of the Thistle " these 

 are most reckless and oblivious of danger when 

 tippling. This species is more common in the 

 northern United States than is the preceding. It 

 flies during July, August, and September. Once 

 about the middle of September I found a speci- 

 men caught in the net of the Argiope spider. I 

 rescued it, and while removing the web I was as- 

 tonished that it could have flown at all on such 

 torn and battered wings. The edges were frayed 

 for a third of the length of the wing, and the sil- 

 9 117 



