PAPILIO XII., XIII. 
nardino, has paid close attention to its habits and larval history during the past 
year, 1883, from early spring to November, taking a vast deal of trouble ex¬ 
pressly that he might aid me in making known this history by plates and text. 
Mr. Wright repeatedly obtained eggs from females tied in bags over branches of 
willow, which were sent me through the mail, and from these came larvae which 
reached chrysalis and imago at Coalburgh. He has written notes on the species 
in substance as follows : “ The first brood of Rutulus butterfly appears in the 
interior valleys of southern California early in March, the earliest examples fly¬ 
ing in the canons of the mountain side, in the equable thermal belt, at an eleva¬ 
tion of a few hundred feet above the low-lying plain, and yet below the colder 
altitudes. In a week or two, they are seen in all the willow thickets of the 
valley, and along the tree-lined roadsides. The males are out a week before any 
females appear. This first brood lasts but a short time; having wholly disap¬ 
peared by the last of April. The second brood comes in May, and thenceforward 
the broods doubtless overlap, as there are always plenty of butterflies through¬ 
out the summer, and into November. In July and August the females are more 
plenty and more prolific than earlier. The food plant of the caterpillar is willow 
of several species, chiefly Salix lasiolepis, and S. lasiandra, or what are locally 
known as white willow, from the smooth white bark. The butterflies never go 
near S. nigra, nor the narrow, silvery leaved Argyrophylla, or Hendsiana. I 
know of several copses of these black willows, and have not during all this season 
seen any Hutuhis near them. Their habit, in laying eggs, is to hover in rapid 
flight about the lower branches of the willows, and drop one egg on the upper 
side of a leaf, then fly rapidly to another plant. The color of the egg being 
exactly that of the leaf, it is not easy to find one, even when the laying is ob¬ 
served. 
“ Having agreed to do what I could to get eggs for Mr. Edwards, the chase 
began before any females were abroad, and was kept up almost daily for three 
months or more. The females of the first brood were all small-bodied, and could 
lay but few eggs. They also proved very unruly and almost always refused to 
lay when in confinement. As at first it was thought that apple or cherry was the 
food-plant, females were unsuccessfully confined over these and allied plants; but 
at length one was detected in the act of laying on willow, so that farther mis¬ 
take was avoided. But even on willow they so steadily refused to lay, that from 
several dozen butterflies of the first brood I only got ten eggs, all of which were 
sent to Coalburgh. 
“ The males of the first brood were fond of feeding on blossoms of the running 
blackberry, and occasionally were seen on composites, but I did not see a female 
of that brood feeding on any flower. By the time the first brood had gone, their 
