THE MILKWEED BUTTERFLY. 107 



The chrysalis is stout and not elongated, largest in the middle 

 of the abdomen ; where it is transversely ridged ; elsewhere it is 

 smooth and rounded, w T ith no striking prominences, but with little 

 conical projections at most of the elevated points, like those 

 which half encircle the body at the abdominal ridge, all of a 

 golden colour except the latter, which are situated in a tri- 

 coloured band, black in front, nacreous in the middle, and gilt 

 behind (Scudder). 



According to Dr. Holland, " the butterfly is considered to be 

 polygoneutic, that is to say, many broods are produced annually ; 

 and it is believed by writers, that with the advent of cold 

 weather these butterflies migrate to the South [in America], 

 the chrysalids and caterpillars which may be undeveloped at 

 the time of the frosts are destroyed, and that when these 

 insects reappear, as they do every summer in North America, 

 they represent a wave of immigration coming northward from 

 the warmer regions of the Gulf States. It is not believed that 

 any of them hibernate in any stage of their existence. This 

 insect sometimes appears in great swarms on the eastern and 

 southern coasts of New Jersey in late autumn. The swarms 

 pressing southward are arrested by the ocean." Within quite 

 recent years it seems to have effected a settlement in Australia, 

 " and has thence spread northward and westward, until in its 

 migrations it has reached Java and Sumatra, and long ago 

 took possession of the Philippines. Moving eastward on the 

 lines of travel, it has established a more or less precarious foot- 

 hold for itself in Southern England. . . . It is well established 

 at the Cape Verde Islands, and in a short time we may expect 

 to hear of it as having taken possession of the continent of 

 Africa, in which the family of plants upon which the caterpillars 

 feed is well represented." 



So far as is shown by the published records, the actual 

 number of specimens of the Milkweed, or, as it is sometimes 

 called, Monarch butterfly, seen or caught in England between 



