The Baltimore is probably the most local in its distribution of any of
the butterflies found throughout Canada and the Northern states. It is
to be looked for only in peat bogs and swamps, and it has a remarkable
unity in its life-history whether it be found in northern Canada or as
far south as West Virginia. The butterfly itself is rather large,
measuring a little more than two inches across its expanded wings and
being colored with an unusual combination of fulvous and yellow upon a
black background. It is present as a rule only from about the first of
June to the middle of July. The eggs, in bunches of from one hundred
to four hundred, are laid upon the leaves of the plant commonly called
snake-head or turtle-head (_Chelone glabra_). They do not hatch for
nearly three weeks; then the little caterpillars emerge together and
usually each eats a little of the empty egg shell. They are then
likely to form a thin web over the under surface of the leaf beneath
which they remain as a small company feeding upon the succulent green
tissue. A little later they are likely to begin the construction of a
miniature nest by spinning a silken web over the young leaves at the
top of the plant. From this time on this silken nest serves as their
home, and they utilize it almost as effectively as do our familiar
American tent caterpillars the nest which they make in the forks of
the wild cherry tree. The Baltimore caterpillars often wander more or
less from their tent-like home but they generally come back to feed as
well as to moult. If the nest is injured by wind or rain, all the
caterpillars turn out to repair it and as the need for new food
supplies arises they also unite to enlarge the tent. This habit of
working together for the common good is very suggestive of the similar
habits of the American tent caterpillars. Doors for going in and out
are left in the tent during its construction.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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