This butterfly is essentially a member of the Canadian fauna. It
ranges from far north in Labrador, British America, and Alaska, south
as far as Pennsylvania, but toward its southern limit it occurs only
on the higher elevations of mountains like the Alleghanies.
=The Buckeye=
_Junonia coenia_
Some genera of butterflies seem to belong almost exclusively to the
north temperate regions, seldom occurring even in our Southern states.
Others belong equally exclusively to tropical regions, seldom
straying into the north. The Buckeye is an illustration of the latter
group. The genus Junonia to which it belongs is essentially tropical,
as it contains several species which are found throughout the tropics
in both the Old and the New Worlds. In fact, this is apparently the
only species which occurs north of the tropics. It has an
extraordinary range, being found from Cuba to Massachusetts and from
the Atlantic to the Pacific coasts. Toward the northern limits of its
range it is very rare and one of the greatest prizes which the
collector can obtain. In our Southern states it is an abundant and
generally distributed butterfly and, as it hibernates as an adult and
one group follows another throughout the season rather rapidly, it is
likely to be taken at almost any time. (_See plate, page 176._)
The mother butterflies select as food plants for the larvae various
members of either the plantain or figwort families. They lay eggs, one
in a place, upon the leaves of plantain, figwort, gerardia, and
related plants generally near the tip of the leaves. Less than a week
later these hatch into spiny caterpillars which feed upon the green
substance of the leaves during the next few weeks. For the most part
they eat between the veins leaving a ragged effect which may help in
finding them. When full grown they change to chrysalids which hang
straight downward and bear a general resemblance to those of the
Thistle butterfly. Curiously enough, those chrysalids which are
attacked by parasites take on a characteristic golden hue; although
the normal healthy chrysalids are dark brown with a few touches of a
decidedly lighter brown.
In its tropical home, where there is no winter period to interrupt its
growth, this butterfly doubtless continues to develop generation
after generation without any break in the sequence. As the species
goes north, however, there is necessarily such an interruption--in
which case the winter seems commonly to be passed by the adult
butterfly. In our Southern states there are commonly three or four
broods each year, while in the northern parts of its range there is
but one brood a year. In the South there is such an overlapping that
all stages of the insect may be found at one time.
_Synopsis of the Angle-wings_
_I. The Polygonias_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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