A few days after the eggs are laid each hatches into a small caterpillar that immediately begins feeding upon the green tissues beside it—first, however, devouring the empty egg shell. It does not eat the midrib of the leaf, but utilizes it as a perch, generally winding it more or less with silken threads, apparently to make it stronger and to prevent it from curling up. The caterpillar seems to feed chiefly at night, resting quietly by day. After a week or so it moults and then continues feeding as before. It continues to feed and grow for several weeks, moulting regularly until it becomes full fed as a caterpillar. It then spins a web of silk closely upon the bark of twig or branch or possibly upon some other object near at hand. In this web it entangles the hooked claws of its hind legs and hangs downward preparatory to the change to the chrysalis. Soon afterward the last larval skin is shed and the chrysalis hangs in place of the caterpillar. This chrysalis has the characteristic form of all the members of this limited group, the outer skin being well hardened and there being a very prominent projection on the middle of the back.
The chrysalis hangs thus, buffeted more or less by wind and rain for about ten days, then the skin breaks apart and the butterfly emerges.
Over a large part of its range there are two broods of this butterfly each year. The adults appear in early summer and lay eggs which develop into butterflies again during the latter part of summer. The life-history of this generation is the one described in the last paragraph. The eggs laid by these late summer butterflies, however, require a somewhat different story. They hatch in the same way as the others but when the caterpillars have moulted about twice they form a winter case or hibernaculum, in exactly the same way as the caterpillars of the Viceroy. They remain within these winter homes till the following spring, when they come forth and complete their development producing the early summer brood of butterflies with which our story began.
The Vicereine
Basilarchia floridensis
In Florida and some of the other Southern states there is a butterfly which looks almost like the Viceroy except that the brown coloring of the wings is very much darker. The species has been called the Vicereine as it is believed to mimic the Queen Butterfly, a species closely related to the Monarch and occurring in the Southern states. The Vicereine probably has a life-history very similar to that of its northern cousin.
Synopsis of the Sovereigns
Banded Purple (Basilarchia arthemis or Limenitis arthemis). Expanse 2½ inches. Ground color of upper surface of wings black with a distinct white band in bow-like form running across the middle of both wings. A row of six tawny spots just outside the white band on each hind wing and various sub-marginal blue spots outside of these. Under surface tawny brown with the white stripe distinct and many red-brown spots.
Red-spotted Purple (Basilarchia astyanax or Limenitis astyanax). Expanse 2½ inches. Ground color brownish black tinged with bluish, especially on the hind wings. No white band but various red and blue spots, especially near the outer margins of the upper surface of both pairs of wings.
Viceroy (Basilarchia archippus or Limenitis disippus). Expanse 2½ inches. General color reddish brown with veins and margins blackish. A narrow black band running across the hind wings just beyond the middle. A series of white spots in all the marginal bands.
Vicereine (Basilarchia floridensis). Expanse 2½ inches. Similar to the Viceroy but much darker in the brown coloring of all the wings.