LIMENITIS I. 
side by side 1 The larvae feed on <he leaves of willow, aspen, bass-wood, and it 
is said, on thorn. In the Catskills, the eggs are laid the last days of July or early 
in August, on young trees, and but one egg upon one leaf. This is placed near 
the tip (Fig. a), and the newly hatched.larva eats away the leaf on both sides of 
t le midrib. 'W hen at rest, it is to be found on the stripped portion of the rib and 
is easily discovered by this habit. When two larvae are hatched on one leaf, as 
happens when two eggs have been laid in confinement, Mr. Mead lias noticed 
that one of them occupies the midrib, while the other rests on a perch con¬ 
structed by itself from the side of the leaf. This perch, he says, is nearly a 
quarter of an inch long and about one fiftieth of an inch in diameter, irregularly 
cylindrical and composed of frass and small .bits of the leaf, fastened together and 
covered with grayish silk. 
Limenitis Disippus has in all respects larval habits similar to Arlhemis and 
as I have often watched the construction of the perch in that species, one account 
will apply to both. The end of the rib is no sooner laid bare than it is coated 
and wound with silk, and to the extremity are fixed grains of larval excrement, 
at first but two or three, placed one after the other in line. These are bound 
together and to the rib, and being small as grains of rifle powder, they form a 
continuation ol about the same dimensions as the rest of the perch, and seem 
effectual to prevent curling as the rib dries (Fig. b). As the larva grows the 
process IS continued until this artificial portion will measure five or six tenths 
of an inch and makes a stout, irregular cylinder, the entire perch reaching about 
one and a half inches (Fig. A). It is constantly strengthened by additions of silk, 
the larva almost invariably, as it goes back and forth from its feeding ground 
:h ( mg threads and patching the weak places. On the perch the larva in its 
jounger stages, that is, before hybernation, always rests, going to the leaf for 
food at short intervals. It occupies the middle of the perch and its usual attitude 
is a twist, the ventral legs clasping; but the anterior half of the body is bent 
down by the side of and somewhat tinder the perch. If two larvm are placed 
on the same leaf, one always takes possession of the extremity, often with some- 
t nng ol a contest and knocking of heads together; but the other will presently 
lie found on one edge, excavating on either side of a narrow strip which is to con- 
1, ! ’f’Y 0f ®“ therin ! "! donse crow[!s is common to many species of butterflies, ami, so far as I know 
s confined almost if not wholly to the males. I mentioned it in my history of Papilio Turum; but about the 
time that was printed, I saw a vastly larger gathering of PapiUos Tm nu,, Troilus, and Ajax, principally of the 
first of these, than I had described. I was driving along a creek in this neighborhood, 2d June, 1877 and 
over it A space Y'T ” I ‘ W ‘ ‘° '*”* bee " ”<**•»«<' ^ Upping, from a coal seam 
1 tt fi A f 3than four feet square was crowded with these Papilios. Allowing one inch for etch 
butterfly, winch seemed ample, there were upwards of 2,300 in that mass, "in course of a°few m les’d ive i 
saw similar gatherings of from scores to hundreds of individuals. 
