. The American entomologist. Entomology. THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 29 beautiful green chrysalis, ornamented with black and gold spots (Fig. 21.) Two weeks after- wards the butterfly (Fig. 22) emerges, leaving the transparent silvery chrysalis skin still at- tached to the leaf. Vast flights of butterflies have often been noticed passing over the country in dififerent parts of Europe, and as the following will show such flocks seem to appear almost every year in some part or other of the United States: A flock of butterflies four miles long, recently pas- sed over one of the inland towns of Cal
. The American entomologist. Entomology. THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 29 beautiful green chrysalis, ornamented with black and gold spots (Fig. 21.) Two weeks after- wards the butterfly (Fig. 22) emerges, leaving the transparent silvery chrysalis skin still at- tached to the leaf. Vast flights of butterflies have often been noticed passing over the country in dififerent parts of Europe, and as the following will show such flocks seem to appear almost every year in some part or other of the United States: A flock of butterflies four miles long, recently pas- sed over one of the inland towns of California, for the North.—A^. Y. Semi-weehly Tribune, July ib, 186h. A Mend informed us that when traveling through a portion of the county of York last summer, he met with Immense swarms of these butterflies, all proceed- ing westward, and lorming a column of three or four mSes in length. He estimated their number at some millions.—Canada Farmer, March 1st, 1866, speahing of Cynthia cardui, a fpedes whose larva feeds on the com- mon thistle. On the 19th of September, 1868, P. B. Sibley, of St. Joseph, Mo., sent us a specimen of Danais archippus, with a statement that he saw mil- lions of them filling the air to the height of [Fig. 22-]. Color»—Orange, red and black. three or four hundred feet, for several hours, flying from North to South, and quite as numer- ous as the locusts (grasshoppers) had been the year before. The cause of their thus congregating in such numbers has hitherto remained, and probably ever will remain a mystery. Insects, otherwise solitary in their habits, sometimes congregate thus, for the purpose of emigration; but in the present instance, their being seen in such numbers may be accounted for by the weather of July and August being favorable to the well- being of the caterpillar. No alarm need be felt at these hosts of butter- flies, for they themselves are incapable of doing any injui-y, while their caterpillars cannot be considered injurious, feed
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, booksubjectentomology, bookyear1
