PAPILIONIDiE. 
343 
When fresh from the chrysalis with its velvety wings in the 
height of perfection, there are very few insects more beautiful than 
this. The graceful shape of the insect, with the delicately tinted 
green stripes across the wings between the bars of dark brown and 
black, and the touches of blue and red on the lower wings, make it 
exceedingly attractive, and the young collector is likely to feel a 
thrill of pleasure as he takes from his net the first perfect specimen. 
It is a rare butterfly in New England, but is occasionally taken in 
the lower Connecticut valley. Throughout the middle and western 
states, ranging as far west as the Rocky Mountains, and in the south, 
it is a common butterfly. I have had many small and brilliantly 
colored specimens from Florida and have collected large and fine 
ones in southern Ohio. Near Chillicothe, Ohio, it is exceedingly 
abundant during the summer, where it may be seen flying along the 
roads and paths by the river or alighting in the fields of clover. 
A week’s collecting during July, on the banks of the Little 
Miami River, near Fort Ancient in southern Ohio, where I procured, 
among others, many grand insects of this species, I remember as one 
of my pleasantest experiences in butterfly hunting. It is a grand 
locality for collecting, and the fertile valley, with its groves of large 
forest trees and fine farms, makes it an ideal spot for a short stay. 
The butterflies were most numerous along the banks of the little 
river and Papilio ajax , with its tails looking like streamers attached 
to its lower wings, was one of the most abundant species. 
The food plant of the larva is the paw paw, and with caution the 
female butterfly could be approached and watched while she deposi¬ 
ted her eggs singly on the under side of the leaves. The plants 
