American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1875-10-02
SWarms of Butterflies.

|
On several evenings recently as the sun
drew near its setting we noticed multi
| tudes of the large, handsome, horn but
| terfly called Dda,ids Archippus, coming
| together from all directions and settling
in close ranks upon the naked branches
of different trees in small grove on the
| lake shore. For two or three hours be-
| fore the night closed down the flock
would be gathering, and while some indi
viduals easily settled to rest others would
restlcssly sail and circle around as if NO
spot presented exactly the conditions de-
| sirable for lodging. 1t was curious to
watch the maneuvers of these uneasy,
| fidgety fellows. They were evidently
very anxious to get favorably disposed
| for the night but had not sense enough to
accomplish the matter without an endless
| fuss about it. Butterflies, the wisest OF
them, have very little intelligence. Nature
dressed them gaudily ana then seemed to
| think they could do without brains. And
she was right, as usual. They manage to
| fulfill the ends of their being, and we adj
mire their snowy colors and jaunty fig
ures without troubling ourselves to in
| quire how much they know. We might
draw parallel here between the human
and the insect butterfly but we leave that
| to moralists and come back to our drOwsy,
the twilight.
The laundering rovers still on the wing
would every now and then dash down
| into the midst of cluster of quiet peace
| ably-minded Danoids that were already
crowded SO that there was no elbow-rOom
among them, and thereby set the whole
mass to hitching and fiuttering, and rout
some out of their places altogether. This
vexatiOus performance would be repeated
over and over again, where there were
| plenty of open spaces on the same twig
ready for the accommodation of those not
yet provided for. But the stupid beauties
were either blind or utterly perverse and
bent on keeping up disturbance as long
as twilight lasted. Finally, as the even,
ing shut in the whole thrOng, Gained
down and settled in rows or groups on the
dead boughs, might easily be taken for
withered leaves still clinging to the parent
stem.
1t isnot uncommon for this species of
butterfly to assemble in large swarms in
August or September, but what instinct
guides them, and what the fact signifies,
have never yet been discovered by ento-
biologists. In September of 1868 accounts
were sent to the american EntOmologist of
vast fiOcks that were seen at different
points in the West. Multitudes suddenly
appeared in diverse localities in the city
of Madison, Wis, and soon after the same
occurrence was noted in Illinois. Sept.
10, 1867, millions were observed at St. Jo-
seph, Mo. According to the statement
they filled "the air to the height of 300 or
400 feet for several hours, flying from
north to south, and quite as numerous as
the locusts had been theyear before" I'M
mense flights of butterflies have been no.
ticed in various other countries and in
other portions of the United States. The
New York Tribune of July %, 1865, con-
tanned the intelligence that "a flock of
butterflies four miles long recently passed
over one of the inland towns of California,
for the north.''
Some other genera of butterflies, as the
Colias and the Cynthia, occasionally con-
gregate in large assemblies. The Canada
Farmer of 1866 says of the Cynthia car
dui: "A friend informed us that, when
travelling through a portion of the county
of York last summer, he met with i'm
mense swarms of these butterflies, all pro-
ceeding westward, and forming column
of three or four miles in leng Ii. He esti-
mated their number at some millions"
In the Naturalist's Voyage Round the
World" Darwin relates: Several times
when the ship has been some miles off
the mouth of the Plata, and at other times
when off the shores of Northern Patagonia,
we have been surrounded by insects.
One evening, when we were about ten
miles from the bay of San Bias, vast num-
bers of butterflies, in bands or fiocks of
countless myriads, extended as far as the
eye could range. Even by the aid of a
telescope it was not possible to see space
free from butterflies. The seamen cried
out. { it was showing butterflies and
such, in fact, was the appearance. More
species than one were present, but the
main part belonged to a kind very similar
to, but not identical with, the common
English Colias edusa. Some moths and
hymenortera accompanied the butterflies,
and fine beetle (CalosOma) flew on
board. :. The day had been fine and
calm, and the one previous to it equally
so, with light and variable winds. Hence
we cannot suppose that the insects were
blown off the land, but we must conclude
that they voluntarily took flight. -. Be-
fore sunset a strong breeze sprung up
from the north and this must nave caused
tens of thousands of the butterflies and
other insects to have persisted"
Lyell, In his :" Principles of Geology
says, in speaking of the migration of the
Vanessa Cardui: "A vast swarm of this
species, forming column from ten to fif-
teen feet broad, was, in 1926, observed in
Switzerland, in the Canton de Vaud; they
traversed the country with great rapidity
regular order, close together, and not
turning from their course on the approach
of other objects Prof Bonelli, of Turin,
observed, in March of the same year, a
similar swarm of the same species, also
directing their flight from north to south,
in Piedmont, in such immense numbers
that at night the flowers were literally
covered with them. They had been traced
from Conf, Raconi, Susi, etc. A similar
flight at the end of the last century is re-
corded by NJ. Louch in the memoirs of
the Academy of Turin"
Some years ago we were riding over
prairie in Iowa, on cool day in early
September, when we observed in the dis
lance row of sycamore trees which were
covered with large, dark patches OF an APP
pearance SO unusual as to arouse our curl
osity. Driving to the spot we found that
the patches consisted of masses of butter
flies, a species of the Cynthia, so thick
that not a green leaf was visible on some
of the trees for One-half of their surface,
on others for third or a quarter OF their
surface. The butterflies were several
deep, clinging to each other like swarm
of bees They were perfectly still, prob
ably rendered sluggish by the cold. The
Iowa prairies abound in butterflies as they
do in flowers Where there is an ample
supply of food, there, as general rule,
will be found corresponding host OF the
creatures that subsist upon it. The honey
in the myriad blossoms of the Western
plains enables myriads of butterflies to
sustain the struggle for existence. And it
is with the butterflies as with the flowers,
there are countless individuals making
the prairies aglOw with gorgeous coloring,
but there is comparatively Il small variety
of species Tribune.