HOW TO KNOW THE BUTTERFLIES 



It awakens from its winter sleep while the spring 

 still lingers in the lap of winter and is on the 

 wing at least a month before the earliest leaves of 

 birch and willow give it place whereon to lay its 

 eggs. If it is single-brooded, as is supposed, the 

 Compton tortoise is a Methuselah among butter- 

 flies as it is nearly a year on the wing. 



This species occurs throughout Canada and the 

 northern portion of the United States east of the 

 Rocky Mountains. 



The Mourning-cloak 



Euvanessa antiopa (Eu-va-nes'sa an-ti'o-pa) 



Plate XXV, Fig. i, 2, 3-; Plate II, Fig. i, 2; and Fig. 35 



The wings above are purplish brown, with a broad yellow 

 border on the outer margin sprinkled with brown, and a sub- 

 marginal row of blue spots (Fig. 35) ; there are also two yel- 

 low patches on the outer half of the costal margin of the front 

 wings. Expanse of wings two and one-half to three and one- 

 half inches. 



Caterpillar. — Length two inches. Velvety black in 

 body-color, covered with small, white, raised dots, which pro- 

 duces a pepper-and-salt effect. The spines are long and 

 sparsely branched. There is a row of red spots along the middle 

 of the back. The head has no spines. The prolegs are reddish. 



Food-plants. — Elm, willow, poplar, and others. 



In the vanguard of the spring appears this 

 butterfly. Before the hepatica shakes its blos- 



148 



