NYMPHALIDiE. 
267 
and varieties or closely allied forms are found in New Zealand and 
Australia. It does seem strange indeed in a land where the trees, 
flowers, birds and mammals are all new to one and where every few 
steps bring one in contact with something never before seen, to 
suddenly come upon a bright little butterfly as well known as the 
faces of one’s near relatives, and looking, like the other inhabitants 
of the country, perfectly at home. It is like meeting a friend of 
one’s childhood in a distant land. 
The insect is double-brooded in our latitude, the butterflies of the 
first brood making their appearance early in June and others later 
in August. Flowers are very attractive to this insect, and in 
favored seasons a patch of the second growth of clover will be found 
a good hunting ground for them. They are agile and restless 
creatures, seldom remaining long in one spot, and flying very rapidly 
when once alarmed. In neglected pastures, where thistles, the food 
plant of the larva, abound, one may usually look for this insect with 
good prospects of finding it plentiful. The species is very common 
in Tennessee, and the largest and finest specimens I have ever seen 
came from that State. In fact, those from which the transfers for 
this work were made are from that region. 
Besides the thistle the caterpillar feeds on the leaves of the 
burdock and sunflower, and with silken webs curls over the edge of 
the leaf beneath which it lives and feeds, finally, as in the preceding 
species rendering its home uninhabitable and constructing a new 
one. The caterpillar is dark brown or black striped with yellowish 
brown on the sides, and is armed with, many branching spines of a 
gray color tipped with black. The chrysalis, which is often sus¬ 
pended from the under side of a leaf of its food plant, is an exceed¬ 
ingly beautiful object, being brown or purple brown with spots of 
burnished gold on its sides and back, and looking more like a 
jewelled ear-ring than the nymph of a butterfly. 
Another butterfly closely related to the preceding and looking 
much like it in all three stages of its existence is Pyrameis huntera. 
In habits it also much resembles Pyrameis eardui, while the cater¬ 
pillar feeds on the same plants. When fresh and perfect this is one 
of the most beautiful of butterflies, the rings and lines on the under 
side of the wings of delicate tints being arranged in a very pleasing 
manner. This insect is found over all of temperate North America, 
and with Pyrameis eardui and Pyrameis atalanta is frequently seen 
in the fields of clover and on the blossoms of the thistle. 
