16 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



dome. When older, it attaches two leaves in a similar manner, fluting 

 the edges by attaching to them silken cords at short distances, so as 

 to dome the upper leaf considerably. Harris calls the nest a leafy case 

 to shelter "the larva from the weather, and screen it from the prying- 

 eyes of birds, and although there may be, and often are, many cater- 

 pillars on the same tree and branch, yet they all live separately within 

 their own cases. One end of the leafy case is left open, and from this 

 the insect comes forth to feed." . The larva of the allied Achalarus 

 lycidas selects a place where one leaf of Desmodium covers another and 

 stitches them together for a most innocent-looking nest, which disturbs 

 the natural arrangement of the leaves in the least degree ; it prefers at 

 first the elevated place near the summit of the Desmodium, but, later, 

 requires the larger leaves below, repeatedly changing its home, 

 quitting it as soon as it becomes too restricted, and partially destroy- 

 ing it, Scudder asserts, by cutting most of the threads, giving it the 

 appearance of having been torn open, and the occupant made away 

 with. The young larva of Thorybes pylades bites two narrow, parallel, 

 generally somewhat arcuate, slits, about 6mm. apart, near the middle 

 of one side of a leaf of clover or Lespedeza, bending over the piece thus 

 partially detached, and attaching it by silken cords to the upper 

 surface, the caterpillar crawling within, and being thus secure from 

 observation : later, the larval nest is constructed somewhat similarly 

 to that of ftpargyreus tityrus. Miss Murtfeld says that the larva of 

 Pholisora catulliis makes its earliest case by cutting out and folding 

 over and fastening down a small portion of the edge of a leaf of Cheno- 

 podium album, forsaking this for another as it gets larger, and finally 

 concealing itself in a home formed from a leaf folded along the mid- 

 rib, the edges fastened together by a few strong stitches of white silk 

 from a quarter to half -an -inch apart. 



We have already noted the nest-making of Nisoniades tages. The 

 nest-making habit of its allies in the Nearctic region appears to be 

 similar. Scudder says that the Nisoniadid larvae " live isolated in 

 little nests which are made upon the underside of leaves, either by 

 cutting and folding over a fragment of the leaf and fastening it 

 securely to the other portion by strong distant bands of silk, or by 

 uniting several leaves." None of the larvae of the North American 

 species of which information is obtainable, however, feed on Legu- 

 minosae, as does our Nisoniades tages. Lintner describes in detail the 

 shelters of Thanaos lucilius, which he found on the undersurface of the 

 leaves of Aquilegia canadensis, and which are made in a very ingenious 

 manner. The young larva of this species cuts a narrow channel in 

 the leaf from the margin inwardly a short distance; this completed, a 

 second channel is cut, commencing at another point on the margin 

 not far removed from the first, and almost parallel with it for a short 

 distance, and then curving towards the former until the two almost 

 meet; on this almost separated piece the larva stands, and its weight 

 carries the cut piece, down, and, when the desired position is reached, 

 almost in contact with the lower side of the leaf, it is fastened there 

 by threads passing between the two surfaces at several points, the 

 larva living in the space between the two surfaces. Sometimes, as if 

 with the object of economising time and labour, the lobe of a leaf is 

 selected of which to construct this shelter, when but a moderate 

 amount <>f cutting ai its base gives the requisite size and desired form. 



