BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



So far as we know, the Melitaeids (as exemplified by Melitaea aurinia 

 and M. cinxia) and the Eurymids (as exemplified by Culias h y ale and 

 C. edusa) follow their American allies in being about half-grown at the 

 time of hybernation. There is, therefore, great difference in the 

 amount of development of larvae of the same, as well as of different, 

 groups at the hybernating period. As already noted, Nisoniades tayes, 

 Cycloriides palaemon, and Cupido- minima are absolutely fullgrown, and 

 have spun their winter home long before the autumn is really here ; 

 in this they remain at rest the whole winter, and early spring, and do 

 not pupate until a few weeks before the imagines are to be found at 

 large, and without leaving their winter hybernacula. Pararye eyeria seems 

 to be the most elastic in its winter resting-habit of all our British butter- 

 flies, for, whilst many larvae, almost full-grown, pass the winter as such, 

 and do some early feeding in the spring, others pass the winter in the 

 nibbling stage, resting in unsuitable, and feeding during suitable, 

 meteorological conditions, whilst some, already fullfed in late autumn, 

 pupate in November and early December, and remain as pupae, the 

 imagines emerging in the spring, often with those from pupae whose 

 larvae have passed the winter as such. It may be here noted that 

 some species, e.y., Pararye meyaera, Coenonymplia pamphilus, Issoria 

 lathonia, Colias liyale, Rumicia yldaeas, etc., which have a very definite 

 hybernating period, feed up very rapidly in the spring, and emerge 

 quite early in the year. 



There is also a marked difference in the amount of completeness or 

 intensity which the resting-habit assumes during this period. In all 

 the butterflies that hybernate as larvae, whose foodplants are 

 deciduous trees, the lethargy is absolute and complete, e.y., Apatura 

 iris, which hybernates from early September to March, spinning a 

 quantity of silk on a stem, and enveloping the hinder part of its 

 body in a mass of silk, remaining, thus protected, immovable. 

 Limenitis sibylla hybernates from September in a hybernaculum com- 

 posed of a leaf bent partly over, with the edges spun together, and 

 strongly bound to the twig with silk, etc. One is much reminded of 

 the hybernating habit of Limenitis sibylla, when one reads Edwards' 

 account of that of Lemonias nais. He says [Can. Ent., xvi., p. 113) 

 that " each larva makes a close-fitting jacket out of a leaf, snipping 

 away here and there all, superfluous parts till the pattern is cut out ; 

 then the sides are drawn together by spun threads and held fast, and 

 the whole interior is covered with a coating of silk. Moreover, the 

 larva provides itself against the fall of its hybernaculum by carefully 

 weaving threads from leaf to stem and around the stem, so that the 

 winds and storms of winter cannot possibly tear the case away." He 

 also notes (op. cit., p. 87) : " The larvae of Limenitis disippus and 

 other species spend the winter in cases cut out of the leaves of their 

 foodplants, one larva to one case, and fitted as nicely as a tailor would 

 fit a coat to his customer." Very complete, too, is the hybernating 

 habit in the larvae of the gregarious species — Aporia crataeyi, Melitaea 

 cinxia, M. aurinia, etc. The larvae of the last-named species rarely 

 leave their hybernacula until March, but, in the early season of 1893, 

 they were already out and nibbling their food by February 9th [Ent. Pec, 

 viii., p. 4). The larvae of Aporia crataeyi rarely move at all until the 

 buds of their foodplants are well opened. The hybernation of the 

 larvae of Dryas paplua, Aryynnis aylaia, Brentkis euphrosyne, and 



