MELITVEA I. 
their habit. So I ascertained that they did not feed in the night on account of 
the low tempeiature, nor in cool and cloudy days when the mercury fell below 
about 50° Far. Towards evening they collected on the sticks in a dense cluster, 
usually resting with heads downward, and there remained till morning. If the 
day was bright and warm they became active as soon as placed in the sunshine. 
At this time spring was far advanced with us, the apple trees in blossom, and the 
forest rapidly coming into leaf, when on the 18th and 19th April, snow fell, and 
fietzing weuthei set in, such as at this season had never been experienced. The 
mercury sank to 12° above 0, and nearly every green thing was killed,_the 
Chelone leaves particularly. I had no alternative but to lose the caterpillars for 
want of food to give them, or to try the effect of cold in suspending animation. 
’Ihej w ere theiefore placed in a cold cellar, and there remained for ten days 
with no injury, recovering activity at once on being brought into light. 
Owing to the sympathy of these larvae with the changes of the weather, the 
intervals between the last moults were irregular • 
hen leady to change to chrysalis the caterpillar of Phaeton wanders, often to 
a great distance from its feeding ground, which its rapid movement easily enables 
it to do, and seeks shelter under logs, fence rails, or the weather-boarding of 
buildings, spins a button of white silk from which it suspends by its last segment, 
and in about thirty-six hours thereafter the change takes place. 
llie first butterfly from the chrysalids of 1869 was on the wing at Coalburgh, 
19th May; from those of 1874, 18th May. At Newburgh, N. Y., I had taken 
the butterfly fresh from chrysalis 20th June. Mr. Scudder gives 25th June as 
the date of appearance in New Hampshire, and Mr. Billings the 3d Julv at 
Ottawa. 
Mr. Scudder states that the larvae of Phaeton have been found to feed in the 
spring on Lonicera ciliata. Mr. T. Glover writes me that Viburnum dentatum 
is also a food-plant. 
leai aftei year I have seen Phaeton flying in various localities, but always in 
eaily summer, and it is not possible that a fall brood should have occurred at 
Coalbuigh without my having had knowledge of it, either of my own observa¬ 
tion, or that of the many experienced lepidopterists who have spent time with 
me. Therefore it seems remarkable that Mr. Billings should have seen an 
individual of this species in August or September. But Dr. G. M. Levette also 
informs me that he saw one flying near Galena, Ill., in August, 1872, and fixes 
tlu‘ date beyond doubt, because he was then on his way to the meeting of the 
American Association at Dubuque. There must occasionally then be cases in 
which the larvae proceed to maturity instead of entering on their hybernation, a 
phenomenon not unknown among the single-brooded butterflies whose larvae 
