FAMILY HABITS IN BUTTERFLY LARV.E THE APATURIDS. 39 



solitary in their habits, whilst those of the American species show, at 

 least in their early stages, strongly marked gregarious habits. 



The habits of the larvae of our only British species, Apatura iris, 

 previous to hybernation, are described by Buckler and Newman. The 

 former states i Larvae, etc. ,i., pp. 45-46) that the newly-hatched larva rests 

 on the tip of a leaf, eats on either side of its resting-place till its first 

 moult ; after moulting it still takes up its position on a leaf-point to 

 rest, eating on either side and returning to the same resting-place ; 

 soon after its second moult it hybernates. Newman adds (Brit. Butts., 

 p. 73) that a portion of the leaf is consumed every day, the midrib 

 being left intact ; the little larva, when resting from its alimentary 

 labours, climbs to the denuded bristle-like tip of this midrib, and there 

 remains perfectly motionless with the anterior extremity raised. 

 Scudder says (Butts. New England, i., p. 231) that Miiller describes a 

 South American species with similar eating-habits, which also 

 resemble those of the North American Anaca, but the larvae of the 

 species of Chlorippe act very differently. 



Of the two best-known North American Apaturids, Chlorippe celtis 

 and C. clyton, the most remarkable feature previous to hybernation, is 

 their gregarious habit. Of this, Edwards says that the eggs of C. 

 clyton are laid in clusters of hundreds, those of C. celtis, either singly 

 or in lots of from five to twenty. The larvae of C. celtis are gregarious, 

 but are satisfied with nearness without contact, those of 0. clyton 

 require actual contact and assemble in groups, to which all scattered 

 ones are attracted, and, if a group be separated, the members will, in a 

 few hours, be found to be together again. When the larva? of C. clyton 

 hatch, they gather in a dense group, are intensely gregarious in 

 habit, and, until after the third moult, lie close together, completely 

 concealing the leaf beneath, and it is one of their peculiarities, even 

 to maturity, that they do not often lie straight, but take a sinuous 

 position, and, when in cluster, as one curves, so do the others 

 adjoining ; moreover, they do not rest with their heads all turned in 

 the same direction, and bodies in line or parallel, as is the habit of 

 many species of gregarious larvae, but they form an irregular mass, 

 the heads mostly outside and pointing in every direction. Edwards 

 found, further, that they fed principally at night, the leaf in the 

 morning having been eaten at one spot, as if all had fed at the same 

 time. When, finally, there remained nothing but the patch on which 

 they rested, they were forced to move to a fresh leaf. From the 

 earliest stage, the surface of the leaf about and beneath the larvae was 

 kept thoroughly clean, but just outside the group was a mass of 

 excrement in a pretty regular ridge, that looked as if it had been 

 voided at that place, but Edwards discovered that certain individuals 

 from time to time acted as scavengers, and that the larvae themselves 

 threw the frass there with their jaws, the members of the colony 

 after the cleansing settling down to their normal attitude of rest. 

 This sanitary work could only have been necessary because the larvae 

 were in confinement, he says, since, in nature, they would have rested 

 on the underside of the leaf. After the second moult, as in our 

 European Apaturids, the larvae change colour, and prepare for hyber- 

 nation. Riley says (Ann. Rept. State Missouri, vi., p. 141) that the 

 larvae of C. clyton are gregarious during the first three stages, feeding 

 side by side, eating the leaf from the tip downwards, but leaving the 



