FAMILY HABITS IN BUTTERFLY LARVAE THE SATYRIDS. 43 



The European Apaturids are entirely single-brooded, but Buckler 

 records [Larvae, etc., i., p. 47) that, of three larvae of Apatura iris that 

 he reared from eggs in the summer of 1875, two went on past the hyber- 

 nating stage and practically reached the adult stage at the end of 

 September, when they unfortunately died just as they were about 

 to pupate, a week of sudden, severe, cold weather being suggested 

 as the cause. Presumably this development of " forward " char- 

 acters was due to the artificial conditions under which the larvae 

 were reared. (See also Watson, Entom., xxvii., pp. 61-62.) We 

 know of no observations that go to show that A. ilia ever 

 develops " forward " larvae, even in the south of Europe, so that 

 it is possible that our European species are absolutely single-brooded 

 in nature. The Nearctic species are, however, inclined to produce 

 "forwards" much more frequently, although Edwards states that C. 

 clyton does not develop " forwards," and that there is, therefore, no 

 partial second-brood ; Scudder, on the other hand (Butts. Xeiv England, 

 i., p. 247), asserting that "forwards" are developed in this species, 

 and that the species is partially double- brooded ; but he gives no 

 data beyond dates of capture of imagines. One would suppose from 

 Riley's statement (Ann. Rept. State Missouri, vi., p. 139) that the 

 whole "of the larvae of Chlorippe celtis coming from June eggs 

 developed a " forward " habit, since he notes that " the larvae of this, 

 the first, brood feed for rather less than a month, when they transform 

 and give out the second brood of butterflies " ; but this is by no 

 means the case, and Edwards notes a brood reared in June, 1873, of 

 which fully half of the larvae stopped feeding in July after the second 

 moult, and became lethargic, the aestivation being continued into hyber- 

 nation without break, whilst the remainder developed a "forward " habit, 

 and progressed so rapidly that they were only 20 days in passing from 

 the egg to the pupal stage, the larvae remaining green throughout. Such 

 marked differences between the habits of larvae of representative 

 species of the same group of butterflies in the Palaearctic and Nearctic 

 regions, as have been here outlined as occurring in the Apaturids, are 

 very unusual. 



CHAPTER VII. 



FAMILY HABITS IN BUTTERFLY LARViE THE SATYRIDS. 



Although the Satyrids are, on general characters, placed with the 

 Nymphalids in all classifications, largely on account of their agree- 

 ment therewith in two main features, viz., the modification of the 

 front legs of the imago, and the suspension of the pupa by its tail, yet 

 the larval structure and larval habits show practically no feature in 

 common with those of the Vanessids, Argynnids, Limenitids, Apa- 

 turids, or other main divisions of the large Nymphalid group. Restricted 

 almost entirely to grass as food, the larvae, in response to their 

 environment, are coloured like the growing or dying grass- blades, are 

 marked with longitudinal lines in agreement with the venation of the 

 grass leaves ; are provided with a covering of short hairs to add to the 

 general appearance of the slightly hirsute surface of their foodplants, 



