408 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



punctis marginalibus fuscis; maris fimbria alba nigro intersecta ; alis omnibus 

 subtus cano cinerascentibus, punctis simplicibus nigris. Larva viridis strigis 

 obliquis obscuris, maculis dorsalibus rubris capiteque nigro. It is a little 

 smaller than the argiolus of Europe to which it approaches closely. Abo\e. 

 the cf is of a delicate violet-blue, with a narrow marginal black line, which 

 often widens on the forewings sufficiently to make a pronounced narrow border. 

 The fringe is whitish, chequered with black. The upperside of the ? is of a paler, 

 and less violet, blue, with a wide black border on the upper wings, and a marginal 

 row of dots of the same colour, somewhat as in the corresponding sex of argiolus. 

 At the end of the discoidal cell of the forewings, there is also a little blackish arc. 

 The fringe of the forewings is chequered with black. The underside is of a very 

 much darker grey than in argiolus, with a brown discoidal streak, a transverse 

 wavy line made up of black dots, slightly edged with whitish, and a marginal row 

 of triangular brownish lunules, each enclosing a darker marginal dot. Outside 

 this is a transverse row of three black dots, well-marked at the base of the hind- 

 wings. The tint of the underside, the size of the black dots, and the marginal 

 lunules readily distinguish this species from argiolus. The larva is green, 

 pubescent, with the back slightly yellower, marked with a median red interrupted 

 line, cut transversely, almost at the middle, by a somewhat large arc of the same 

 colour of which the concavity is turned forward. The sides present, as in most 

 analogous species, oblique streaks, darker than the ground colour ; near the feet, 

 also is a marginal line of dark green ; the feet are of the colour of the body ; 

 the head is black. The pupa is reddish, with the wing-cases slightly greenish, 

 and the back marked with four rows of spots darker than the ground colour. 

 It lives throughout a great part of the United States, on many kinds of bushes, 

 like our argiolus, of which it has many similar habits (Boisduval and Le Conte). 

 Egglaying : The early spring ? s lay their eggs on the flower-buds of Cornus. 

 They are laid singly, low down on the side of a floret, and usually well within the 

 flower-head. The earlier second-brood ? s choose Cimicifuga racemosa, the eggs 

 being laid on the greenish-white buds of the long flower-spikes. The ? s of the 

 later summer emergence lay their eggs on Actinomeris squarrosa (Butts. Nth. Amer., 

 ii., pi. iii., fig. 3) (Edwards). The eggs hatch in from four to eight days, according to 

 season (Edwards), some laid in May hatched in six days (Scudder). A 2 lucia was 

 observed, June 4th, 1903, at Much Lake, Quebec, to lay her eggs upon the small 

 buds of Chrysanthemum leucanthemum ; settling on the top of a bud, the ? crawled 

 to the edge, turned the abdomen beneath it, and thrust the egg out of sight as far 

 as possible, placing four at the base of the bracts, where there is a slight swelling, 

 which somewhat hides them (Young teste Fletcher). Egg: -02in. in diameter; round, 

 flat at base, the top flattened and depressed, the surface covered with a white lace-work, 

 the meshes of which are largely lozenge-shaped, with a short rounded process at each 

 angle; colour of the shell under this covering, delicate green (op. cit., figs. a-a'). 

 Duration of this stage — six to eight days in April, four to five days in May, June, and 

 September. Habits of larva : As soon as hatched, the young larva eats a minute 

 hole, the diameter of the head, into the lower part of the unopened bud of dogwood 

 (Cornus), just above the calyx, and feeds upon the filaments of the stamens. 

 After its first moult, it bores into the sides of the calyx, to get at the ovules; but, 

 as the flowers mature and the ovary hardens, the boring is from the top, inside the 

 tube of the calyx, and follows the stalk of the pistil to the ovule. Finally, belated 

 larvae are compelled to gnaw the seed-vessel after it has become woody, and, in 

 several instances, have been found eating the stem below the flower. It is not 

 unusual for the larvae in confinement to eat of the white involucre of the flower, 

 but I have never observed them eat of the leaves, even when no other food has 

 been given them. The larvae of the second brood bore into the side of a bud of 

 Cimicifuga racemosa, gradually eating out the contents till a mere shell is left, then 

 move to a fresh bud, etc. As the larva feeds, the prothorax is pressed hard 

 against the bud, so as to permit the utmost elongation of the neck. Thus it is 

 enabled to eat out the contents of the bud, and only desists when there remains 

 but the empty shell. When so engaged, the anterior segments are curled up, and 

 the others rest on the stalk of the plant ; but very small larvae rest wholly on the 

 bud, curving around it. The larvae feed on many other plants in confinement. 

 Those on Cornus, in their later stages, vary greatly in colour and markings, 

 having more or less green, either light or dull, with white, brown, and crimson, 

 but, in the younger stages, they are much the colour of the flowers they feed on, 

 and are thus, in some degree, protected from their numerous enemies — spiders, 

 hemiptera, etc. In confinement, when food is scanty, they will prey on each 



