The Republican journal., 1900-05-10
THE FIRST BUTTERFLIES.

In Everyday Butterflies Samuel
Hubbard Scudder teaches us that it is
high time to be on the lookout for but
terflles. Of those that hibernate we
may expect to see the Mournin9-C Cloak,
the Compton Tortoise, the Green Com
ma and the Hop Merchant. OF those
that come from chrysalides there are
soon due the Spring Azure, the Cabbage
Butterfly, the Clouded sulphur the
Gray Comma and the American Tor
tolse-Shel. Now let us consider Mr..
Scudders descriptions of these nine va
rletles OF dlurnal Lepidoptera.
The Mourning Cloak is our earliest
butterfly, venturing from its winter
quarters with more freedom than any
other alternating kind. Everyone
knows it, this large, purplish- brown but
terfiy, having spread OF three inches or
more, with a broad buff-yellow margin
to it's wings, near the inneredge of which,
on the darkest groundwork of the wings,
is row OF pale blue spots seen only OH
the upper surface While. beneath, the
wings are brown, cross-threaded minute
ly and TREMENDOUSLY with black, the buff
margin paler than above. . . 1t
loves to return to a place whence it has
flown
''The Compton Tortoise is the largest
Of our butterflies with ragged-edged
wings. These have an eXpanse of -
inches or more. They are of a tawny
ground color above. much marked with
bars and blotches of dark brown, espec-
tally next the front margin, with a
smaller white bar largest on the hind
wing near the tip. Beneath they are
excessively variegated, but, i'll general,
brown on the basal. ashen on the APPEAL
half, with a sometimes indistinct. slen-
der. white l. in the middle of the hind
wings. 1t is fond of pitching
with closed wings, head down, on the
trunks of large trees. when the colors of
the under surface of the wings renderit
difficult to distinguish it from the gray
bark
''The Green Comma differs from the
others of the species of Patagonia by the
greater apparent raggedness of the out
er margins OF the wings, and by the con-
siderable amount of dark green tieckings
on the under surface, particularly mott
ceable in the males and on the outer half
OF the wings. The centre of the hind
wings is adorned beneath with a silvery
comma-llke mark. 1t is seldom
found far from the woods"
The Hop Merchant is another Poly
gonia, ''having a silvery comma with
expanded tips in the centre of the hind
wings beneath. The butterfly frequents
roads, especially in damp places, or col
lects in some numbers on damp stones
by forest brooks, not crowded together,
but scattered about in close neighbor-
hood, with wings outspread to receive
full benefit of the SUM-
''No one who habitually looks for the
| 90, linct I,o
spring but will have noticed, futtering
about the thickets or near the stream
lets in the woods tiny blue butterfly
like a violet atloat: and If he has
caught one under his hat he cannot fail
to have observed the delicacy of the
gossamer wings, which his rude hand
ling has quite spoiled. The Spring
Azure is the earliest of our butterflies
to come from the ch,ysalis of the same
season, and ushers in the spring"
The Cabbage Butterfly has an eX-
panse of about two inches: is of dull
white color above, with the extreme
tip blockish. a round black spot Just be
You'd the middle of the fore wings and
another at the front edge of the hind
wings; the female has also second
spot on the fore wings below the first:
beneath, tie wings are washed with
yellow and more or less tiecked, espec-
tally on the hind wings. with griseous,
and the markings of the upper surface
are repeated III part. They are
fond of flowers and have been thought
to show a special prediction fer those
of their own color.
The Clouded sulphur is a ''yellow but
tertiy commonest among our Northern
Species"
The Gray Comma is the least bril-
liant of all the Polygonias, and is called
the Gray Comma from the nearly uni
form dark ashen-gray tint of the under
surface, caused by the covering of a
light brown ground with a web Of
slender. wavy black threads having Il
general transverse direction. .
This species is further characterized
by having the silver spot in the centre
of the hind wing in the form of a
straight-sided l.. instead of curved
c. If startled it quickly snaps
it spread wings into an erect position"
1.-The American Tortoise-Shell differs
markedly from every other of our but
tertiies Although a Northern insect
there are three broods annually both
the butterflies and the chrysalds hiber-
mating. The butterfly hiber-
mates under stones found in piles, or in
barn lofts or similar places. 1t
is found almost throughout New Eng
land, but is extremely rare in the south
em portions, the limit of its common
ness being near the, northern line of
Massachusetts. Boston Transcript.
Itch on human cured in SO minutes by
Woolford's Sanitary Lotion. This never
fails. Sold by A. A. Howes & Co., Drug
gists, Belfast, Me. lyric.