140 
It occurs more abundantly in the Southern States, where its larva 
feeds on the orange tree, but here it is regarded as a rare insect, and, 
according to a recent article, by Wm. Saunders, in the Canadian 
Entomologist, feeds on Dictamnus fraxinella , an ornamental garden 
herb, and Hop Tree ( Ptelea trifoliata ) as well as Prickly Ash ( Zanthoxy - 
lum Americanum ,) and all plants related to the ( Citron ) Lemon and 
Orange, upon which it feeds in the south. 
I found last fall two of these Caterpillars feeding on a shrub of 
Prickly Ash in my yard, over which a Cresphontes Butterfly had been 
seen hovering some time before. They were found October 10th ; 
were then two inches long, and only fed five days upon the leaves I 
gave them, when they attached themselves to the top of the box and 
in two days changed to chrysalids. 
The following is Mr. Saunders’ free translation of Boisduval and Le 
Conte’s description of the larva : 
“ The Caterpillar is of a very mixed color; its under surface is 
brown as well as the feet. On the first four segments there is a white 
lateral and longitudinal band, beginning from the head. Between 
that band and that of the opposite side there is a large brown patch 
marked by large brownish black spots, and behind this, on the mid¬ 
dle segments, there is a large white patch in the shape of a lozenge, 
which covers the back and a part of the sides, one of the angles of 
which reaches the first pair of membranous feet. On the middle of 
this band there are some brown spots. The posterior part of the body 
is covered by another large white patch marked anteriorly with some 
brown spots; the lateral part comprised between the lozenge-shaped 
and the last white patch, is of a uniform dark-brown color. It feeds 
on all the trees of the genus Citrm, and is, in some parts of America* 
a sort of plague to the cultivators of the Orange.” 
The Butterfly may be briefly described as follows : Wings black, 
crossed by two broad, interrupted, curved, yellow bands; the first run¬ 
ning from the apex of each front wing obliquely across to near the 
middle of the hind margin where, with the yellow base of the hind 
wings, it forms a continuous band. The spots, from near the middle 
of where the first band crosses the fore wings, joins with a sub-margi¬ 
nal row on the hind wings to make the second band. Near the anal 
angle is an eve-like orange spot with a black center similar to that in 
the Asterias Butterfly. The end of the rather long tail is occupied by 
an ovate yellow spot, while there is a pair of yellow spots running 
from the first band to the costa at the end of the discal cell. 
