Article beginning on page 330.
Psyche 5:330-331, 1888.

Full text (searchable PDF)
Durable link: http://psyche.entclub.org/5/5-330.html

The following unprocessed text is extracted from the PDF file, and is likely to be both incomplete and full of errors. Please consult the PDF file for the complete article.

[March-April 1890.
DIARY OF A HIBERNATING BUTTERFLY.
BY SAMUEL HUBBARD SCUDDER, CAMBRIDGE, MASS. Doubtless in acknowledgment of the
honor just conferred upon it by giving
it a new and euphonious name in my
å´ Butterflies of the Eastern United
States," a fine specimen of JSuvanessa
antiopa came to pass the winter with
me, taking up its station in the cellar
directly beneath the room where the
Cambridge Entomological Club holds
its meetings. It was first noticed about the middle of November, before the
cellar windows had been closed for the
winter. It was then pitched on the top
of the cellar-wall where this was ex-
posed in the passage-way down stairs.
For fear of its falling a prey to the mice which had been seen here, it was driven
away, when it at once took up its station about eight inches above the cellar floor on the " riser" of the first stair, just beneath the projecting edge of the first tread," the extremity of its wing pro-
jecting beyond the tread. Here it re-
mained all winter, until the last days of February, not, however, without moving;
the position of the wings was marked
with a pencil on the edge of the tread,
and it was found to have shifted its po- sition repeatedly - some six or eight
times - sometimes forward, sometimes
backward, within a range of about an
inch ; about the middle of January its
position changed from perfectly hori-
zontal to slightly oblique, the head
downward, and on the very morn-
ing of the day it left the station
it was noticed to have shifted a very
little more, increasing its obliquity.
During all this time the wings were
kept in an identical position, back to
back, the fore wing thrust forward just so much as to bring the tooth at the tip of the lower median nervule of the fore
wing exactly midway between the sub-
costal tooth of the same wing and the
tooth of the upper median nervule of the hind wing. This is exactly the position
of complete repose in summer. The
station chosen was a curious one, being
directly beneath the spot where the right foot, always first advanced, was placed
upon the first tread, and a movement of
air must at least have been perceptible
to it whenever one went upstairs or
down, but in only a single instance was
any apparent agitation produced ; this
was when the cellar doors ten feet
away from it were opened, on a tolerably cool day, and for three hours men were
passing back and forth bringing in
wood; then a slight vibration of the
wing-tips was seen, but no sound could
be detected.
In a wintering Polygonia observed by
Goossens in Paris, the fore wings re-
sponded to the warmth of the weather
by creeping forward and backward be-
tween the hind wings a very little, with-



================================================================================

out any other noticeable movement.
This I was unable to detect in E. an-
tiofa, perhaps because the cellar tem-
perature would not vary nearly so much
as the outer air, especially as it contained a furnace at about twenty-five feet dis- tance ; but particular attention was paid on the coldest and warmest days with-
out detecting any difference of position of the wings. What the cause of the
slight forward and backward move-
ments might be was not discovered ; it
seemed to have no relation to the
weather or to the amount of light.
It
may be added that until the position be- came oblique the wings were held hori-
zontally with a scarcely perceptible tip upward toward the "tread," the legs on
the upper side being bent slightly more
than those on the lower side ; but when
the oblique shift was made, the tip was
very slightly increased, to about ten de- grees in all.
It finally flew to a small window
about six feet above its hibernating post, where it was found at
about 2 P. M. on
28 February, having left its winter
quarters since I P M.
It was in a curi-
ous position : it had evidently
alighted
on the vertical surface of the lower sash, head upward, and had lost its hold, the
smoother surface not permitting its
claws to hold so well as in its hiberna- ting station, and had fallen backward
upon the top of the ledge an inch or two beneath, and there remained upside
down, balanced on the top of its erect
wings, the margins of the hind pair
spreading by the weight and so prevent-
ing it from tipping over ; in this strange position, feet upward, where a mere
breath of air would have thrown it over, but from which it could free itself only by flapping its wings, it remained for
more than an hour, but by about 3 P. M.
was found to have righted itself and
pitched with erect wings, head clown-
ward, on the cellar wall a few inches
away.
February 28 was a cloudy, cool clay
with rain, the thermometer at the time
of its flight about 42'. In the cellar it ' was about 48'-so0. The only time that
the outer air had free access since the
closing of the windows late in Novem-
ber was when the wood was brought in
early in February.
The butterfly remained in the position
it had taken on the afternoon of 28 Feb- ruary until about noon of 5 March.
During the warmer clays when the rays
of the sun fell directly on the apical half of the wings, it would thrust its anten- nae forward at an angle of about 45O
with each other and at an angle with
the costal edge of the fore wings of about 35' ; at other times the antennae were
kept between the fore wings out of sight, just behind the costal margin, as I found out by parting the wing-tips carefully
.without in the least disturbing it. It
shifted its position slightly from day to day much as it had done on the stair,
but retained practically the same foot-
hold with which it had alighted. I had
to pass the place more than a dozen
times a day, my shoulder within a foot
of the butterfly, but the only effect




================================================================================

shown was when the antennae were ex-
tended as if alert. Then my presence
near at hand or my passing would be
recognized by a rocking or bowing mo-
tion of all the wings in common, pro-
duced, apparently, by the action of the
middle legs in lowering and raising the
body upon the pivot formed by the in-
sertion of the hind legs ; the tips of the wings moved slowly forward and back-
ward, the forward motion more abrupt
than the backward, over an arc of not
more than a quarter of a centimetre ; the motion was accompanied by no percep-
tible sound.
On the 5th, a bright, warm day, the
butterfly had turned back to the win-
dow at about noon, and my appearance
led to some fluttering against the pane. As I remained motionless, it gained
heart, walked about the broad ledge be-
neath the window with open wings and
antennae spread at right angles, with
every few steps depressing them like
stiff sticks till they touched the ground, beating time. as it were, with its march, and, finally, took up its position on the ledge, and turning its back to the sun,
expanded its wings fully, even depres-
ing them so that the tips touched the
surface of rest ; the antennae retained
the alert position of the day before.
Wishing to see what would happen I
moved from my position directly oppo-
site the window, my head about three
feet away, toward the butterfly, but as
slowly as possible. No effect was pro-
duced until my eyes were within a foot
of the butterfly facing me, when its
wings shut with a snap and then began
to vibrate ; the tips of the wings ap-
peared to have a lateral vibration of not more. probably considerably less, than
a couple of millimetres, while the an-
tennae vibrated forward and backward
as much as laterally, and not over a
millimetre. I could perceive no sound
whatever. I slowly turned my head to
bring my ear opposite, but could still
detect nothing. On endeavoring to
bring my ear still nearer by the quietest possible approach, the butterfly flew
again to the window and fluttered about. Subsequently, I got within six inches
and could then distinctly hear a rustle
like the flapping of the wings of an in- sect against a window pane at a dis-
tance, and could see that there was not
the slightest motion of the fore wing on the hind. It afterwards partook so
greedily of some half-rotten apple of-
feredit that it permitted me to hustle
it about with my finger without ap-
parent fright.
PALAEARCTIC LEPIDOPTERA. - The cele-
brated collection of PALAEARCTIC LEPIDOP- TERA made by the late PROFESSOR HEINRICH FREY, of Zurich, is offered for sale.
The collection consists of 4404 species and 15,600 specimens, all in excellent condition. It occupies 100 corked and glass-covered drawers, contained in three cabinets. The collection will always have a high scientific value as it contains the types of all the new microlepidoptera described by Professor
Frey. There are about 80 of these of which about 50 are unique.
For further information apply to DR. MAX STANDFUSS, MUSEUM DES POLYTECHNICUM,
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND.




================================================================================