(3) Vanessa milberti, Godart, Plate XX, Fig. 10, 8; Plate Washington III, Fig. 36, larva; Plate IV, Figs. 43, 49, 50, chrysalis (Milbert's Butterfly.-Easily distinguished by the broad yellow submarginal band on both wings, shaded outwardly by red. It is nearly related to the European V. urticæ. Expanse, 1.75 inch. The life-history has been worked out and described by numerous writers. The caterpillars feed upon the nettle (Urtica). This pretty little fly ranges from the mountains of West Virginia northward to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, thence westward to the Pacific. (4) Vanessa antiopa, Linnæus, Plate I, Fig. 6, 9; Plate III, Fig. 28, larva; Plate IV, Figs. 51, 58, 59, chrysalis (The Mourning-cloak; The Camberwell Beauty). Butterfly. This familiar insect needs no description. It is well known to every boy in the north temperate zone. It is one of the commonest as well as one of the most beautiful species of the tribe. A rare aberration in which the yellow border invades the wing nearly to the middle, obliterating the blue spots, is sometimes found. The author has a fine example of this "freak." The eggs are laid in clusters upon the twigs of the foodplant in spring (see p. 5, Fig. 11). There are at least two broods in the Northern States. The caterpillars feed on willows, elms, and various species of the genus Populus. Genus PYRAMEIS, Doubleday Butterfly.-The wings in their neuration approach closely to the preceding genus, but are not angulate, and the ornamentation of the under side tends to become ocellate, or marked by eye-like spots, and in many of the species is ocellate. Egg. The egg is broadly ovoid, being much like the egg of the genus Vanessa. Caterpillar. The caterpillar in its mature form is covered with spines, but these are not relatively as large as in Vanessa, and are not as distinctly branching. Chrysalis.—The chrysalis approaches in outline the chrysalis of the preceding genus, and is only differentiated by minor structural peculiarities. The genus includes only a few species, but some of them have Berkshire Les. Sifass. a wide range, Pyrameis cardui being almost cosmopolitan, and having a wider distribution than any other known butterfly. (1) Pyrameis atalanta, Linnæus, Plate XLIII, Fig. 4, ; Plate III, Fig. 35, larva; Plate IV, Figs. 52, 53, 55, chrysalis (The Red Admiral). This familiar butterfly, which is found. throughout North America, Europe, northern Asia, and Africa, needs no description beyond what is furnished in the plates. Expanse, 2.00 inches. The food-plants are Humulus, Bahmeria, and Urtica. (2) Pyrameis huntera, Plate I, Fig. 2, ; FIG. 97. Neura- Plate XXXIII, Fig. 6, 8, under side; Plate III, tion of the genus Py- Fig. 34, larva; Plate IV, Figs. 54, 63, 64, chrysalis (Hunter's Butterfly). rameis. Butterfly.-Marked much like the following species, but easily distinguished at a glance by the two large eye-like spots on the under side of the hind wings. Expanse, 2.00 inches. Early Stages.-These have been frequently described, and are in part well depicted in Plates III and IV. The food-plants are cudweed (Gnaphalium) and Antennaria. Hunter's Butterfly ranges from Nova Scotia to Mexico and Central America east of the Sierras. (3) Pyrameis cardui, Linnæus, Plate I, Fig. 1, 8; Plate III, Fig. 37, larva; Plate IV, Figs. 60-62, chrysalis (The Painted Lady; The Thistle-butterfly). Butterfly. This is undoubtedly the most widely distributed of all known butterflies, being found in almost all parts of the temperate regions of the earth and in many tropical lands in both hemispheres. It is easily distinguished from the preceding species by the more numerous and much smaller eye-like spots on the under side of the hind wings. Expanse, 2.00-2.25 inches. Early Stages. These have been again and again described at great length and with minute particularity by a score of authors. The food-plants of the caterpillar are thistles (Carduus), Urtica, Cnicus, and Althæa. (4) Pyrameis caryæ, Hübner, Plate XX, Fig. 12, 8 (The West Coast Lady). Butterfly. This species is easily distinguished from P. cardui, its nearest ally, by the absence of the roseate tint peculiar to that species, the tawnier ground-color of the upper surfaces, and the complete black band which crosses the middle of the cell of the primaries. Expanse, 2.00 inches. Early Stages. These have not all been thoroughly described, but we have an account of the larva and chrysalis from the pen of Henry Edwards, in the "Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences," vol. v, p. 329. The food-plant of the caterpillar is Lavatera assurgentiflora. This species ranges from Vancouver's Island to Argentina, and is found as far east as Utah. WIDELY DISTRIBUTED BUTTERFLIES The primal curse declared that the earth, because of man's sin, should bring forth thorns and thistles, and thistles are almost everywhere. Wherever thistles grow, there is found the thistlebutterfly, or the "Painted Lady," as English collectors are in the habit of calling it, Pyrameis cardui. All over Europe, all over North America, in Africa,-save in the dense jungles of the Congo,throughout South America, in far-off Australia, and in many of the islands of the sea this beautiful butterfly is found. At some times it is scarce, and then again there are seasons when it fairly swarms, every thistle-top having one of the gaily colored creatures seated upon its head, and among the thorny environment of the leaves being found the web which the caterpillar weaves. Another butterfly which bids fair ultimately to take possession of the earth is our own Anosia plexippus, the wanderings of which have already been alluded to. Many species are found in the arctic regions both of the Old World and the New. Obscure forms are these, and lowly in their organization, survivors of the ice-age, hovering on the borderline of eternal frost, and pointing to the long-distant time when the great land-masses about the northern pole were knit together, as geologists teach us. One of the curious phenomena in the distribution of butterflies is the fact that in Florida we find Hypolimnas misippus, a species which is exceedingly common in Africa and in the Indo-Malayan subregion. Another curious phenomenon of a like character is the presence in the Canary Islands of a Pyrameis, which appears |