AMERICAN NATURALIST. 
DOLIO D 
THE CURIOUS HISTORY OF A BUTTERFLY. 
BY SAMUEL H. SCUDDER. 
Or all American butterflies Brenthis Bellona presents the 
strangest history. Everybody knows that butterflies pass through 
several stages of growth, from the egg, caterpillar and chrysalis 
" the butterfly — a cycle of changes which succeed each other 
with perfect uniformity from year to year; it is also known to 
most who read these pages that many butterflies pass through this 
Jele twice or even thrice in the course of the year, while others 
“gain are “ single-brooded.” If one should assert that Brenthis 
: i ma was single-brooded, most, if not all, observers would say 
_ “Was an error; do not butterflies of this species, fresh from the 
- Sirysalis, appear late in May, again in July and still, once more, 
y in September? true, and yet, properly speaking, the insect is 
le-brooded. 
a this genus — at least in B. Bellona and B. Myrina— occurs 
phenomenon, which, so far as I know, is quite unique among but- 
"les; there are two sets of individuals, each following its own 
a " changes, apparently with as little to do with the other 
asif it were a different species; each set has its own distinct 
pe and thus gives rise to the apparition of two or three suc- 
: paai broods ” in the course of the year. ii : 
ee * the very end of the season this butterfly will be found laying 
| Set Watch hatch in a few days; the little caterpillars, after 
t 
of the Librarian of Congress, at Wash 
E, in the nuk, the Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by the PEABODY ACADEMY OF 
AMER, NATURALIST, VOL. VI. 33 (513) 
