Article beginning on page 129.
Psyche 6:129-130, 1891.

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August 1891. J
EXPERIMENTS WITH ALPINE BUTTERFLIES.
BY SAMUEL H. SCUDDER.
Before noon on July 17 last, the morn-
ing being fair, I caged half a dozen
Oeneis semidea $' on a pot of growing
sedge in an open south window, in the
hotel on the summit of Mount Washing-
ton, N. H. The afternoon and all the
next day the mountain was enveloped
in clouds, and no eggs were laid before
July 20 when, by eight o'clock, a single egg was seen ; during that day and the
next, both of which were fair, about
eight or nine eggs were laid. perhaps a
Ceruraoccidentalis
aquilonaris
C‰ cinerea
......................
' multiscripta
Platypteryx arcuata
Dryopteris 1-osea
Actias 11ma ......................
Teleapolypherr~us ..............
Calosamia promethea
'1
augulifera
few more. July 20, at about 2 P.M.,
two more cages were stocked, both out
of doors 011 growing sedge, and in one
five, in the other seven females were
placed. These were examined about
twenty-four hours later ; three eggs
were found in the former, none in the
latter, and all the females were re-
placed where the five had been, and left in the care of Mr. H. H. Lyman who
remained longer on the mountain. Into
the cage in the house half a dozen more
June
20.
.......................
I
I
June
14.
.....................
I
..................
..................
July
9.
I
13
3
I
Aug.
4.
-
10
14
......
......
2
4
4
. . . . . .
. . . . . .
2
......
5
. . . . . . . .
.... 918
June
34.
............................
..
3
Platysamia cecropia ............
Hyperchiria io.. ................
Eacles imperialis ..................
Citheronia regalis ................
Anisota stigma. ................
senatoria
Dryocampa rubicunda ..........
Clisiocampa americana. .......
dt disstria.. .............
Gastropacha americana
Tolype laricis ...... .-,
velleda
Prionoxystus robiniae ............
Totals per visit.. .........
July
17.
I
3
7
I
3
13
2
2
.........................
508
I
I
881
Total number of moths taken.. .............................................. Aug.
14.
-
3
I
I
2
-July
2.
...............................
I
..............................
I
I
9
I .
12
I
3
15
...............
................
.........................
118
July
2s.
I
. . . .
. . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . .
4
. . . . . . . .
7874
Totals.
--
15
o
6
I
o
I
2
54
4
..
..
..
2
..
4
503
49
I
106
40
14
9
2;
2419
118
2
4
0
----
I0
4
14
I
I
. . . .
....
1382
..
I
1579 1 I++ 1 1199 1 1074
23
1 15
20 27
178
3
g
7
I
2
8
3
..
5
I
3
3
429
82
I
g
5
I
z
I
. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . .
16
4
3
8
82
29
I
1 1
2




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130 PYS CHE. [~ugust 1891.
butterflies were placed on the afternoon of the 2ist, and at seven o'clock the
next morning this cage was taken to
Cambridge and carefully examined, with
the result of finding twenty-six eggs;
most of these were laid on the dead last year's blades of sedge ; a number were
found on the wire hoops supporting the
netting ; still fewer 011 the green blades of the sedge,-perhaps four or five ;
one on a piece of brown paper in which
the pot was wrapped, but none either
on the netting, the edge of the flower-
pot, or the ground.
Toward the end of July, 1887, as re-
ported in my New England Butterflies,
p. 146-147, I carried three females of this butterfly down the railway on Mount
Washington to the base, and found them
apparently affected by the change so as
to be unable to fly. I thought it would
be well to repeat the experiment and
extend it; accordingly, when I left the
mountain July 22, I did not disturb the
butterflies I had placed in the cage until I reached Cambridge, or just before
dark of the 22d. The butterflies were
all of them affected as described by me
before, but to a slightly less extent, none lying quite helpless on their side and
some, after being fairly down the moun-
tain a few hours, keeping their wings
tightly closed continuously as they hung from the lace. It is possible (though I
do not think it at all probable, from the nearly continuous shaking of the train)
that some of the eggs mentioned were
laid after leaving the summit of the
mountain, but some have certainly been
laid since their arrival at the seaboard, for one was seen laid on July 23,
seven were found on July 24 and twelve
more on July 25. Their behavior
below when attempting flight is quite
the same as one finds on startling
them up from the sedge toward the
close of the day on the mountain ;
they flutter close to and in contac't with the ground as if injured, and unable
even with desperate efforts to get away. It was a somewhat curious coinci-
dence that I heard on my return that
Mr. W. H. Edwards had received in
West Virginia a lot of semidea, male
and female, sent alive in a pasteboard
box from Mount Washington ; half were
dead, but two of the females were lively and wandered about the cage in which
he placed them. It is quite evident,
then, that the change to a lower level
does not interfere with their activities to the extent that I supposed it did.
Oeneis semidea is very abundant
this year; a single larva in last stage
but not quite fully grown was found
under a stone on July 20.
During our stay on the mountain,
Mr. Lyman and I searched in vain from
the Ledge to Tuckerman's Ravine, in
all its best known haunts, for Brenthis
nzontinus without seeing one, and I am
quite convinced that it was not on the
wing. But an interesting capture was
made of Eurymus interioy, males of
which, to the number of a dozen or
two, were seen in the lower half of the
woodless region. The only other but-
terflies seen above timber were Argyn-
nis cybele, Pieris rapae, and Eufhoe-
ades glaucus.




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