THE THISTLE BUTTERFLY. 291 



folded leaf, and suspend themselves by the hind feet alone 

 when about to transform. The chrysalids are angular on 

 the sides, with two or three rows of sharp tubercles on the 

 back, the anterior extremity is nearly square, or hardly 

 notched, and there is a short and thick prominence on the 

 top of the thorax. The tubercles, and oftentimes the greater 

 part of the surface of the chrysalis, have the color and lustre 

 of burnished gold ; from which originated the name chrysa- 

 lis, derived from the Greek name for gold, now, however, 

 applied to other insects in their second stage of transforma- 

 tion, which are not golden-colored. 



Cynthia Cardui. Thistle Butterfly. (Fig. 118.) 



Wings tawny above, with a tinge of rose-red, spotted 

 with black and white ; hind wings marbled beneath, with a 



Fig. 118. 



^jjjg^ 



triangular white spot in the middle, and a row of five eye- 

 like spots near the hind margin. 



Expands 2 J to 2J inches or more. 



The caterpillars of this butterfly are found on thistles, 

 particularly the spear-thistle ( Onicus lanceolatus) and cotton- 

 thistle ( Onojpordon acanthium), on the leaves of the sun- 

 flower, hollyhock, burdock, and other rough-leaved plants, in 

 June and July. Though there may be several on the same 

 plant, they keep at some distance from each other. Each 

 one spins for itself a thin web on the surface o( the leaf, 

 usually near the edge, to which it is also fastened, so as to 



