Caterpillar.—The caterpillar is cylindrical, reddish-yellow in color, marked with two brown lateral bands and a series of white spots upon the back. There are six rows of short branching spines upon the body, which are black in color; the two uppermost of these spines on the first segment are much elongated and are directed forward. The head is smaller than the body in the mature caterpillar, and is black. On the under side the caterpillar is pale or whitish; the legs are blackish-brown. It feeds upon the passion-flower.
Chrysalis.—The chrysalis is pearly-white, marked with black spots and longitudinal streaks.
This species has been taken as far north as Long Island and Connecticut, though it is a very rare visitant in New England; it is quite common in Virginia and thence southward, and occurs not infrequently in southern Illinois and Indiana, ranging westward and southward over the entire continent to the Isthmus of Panama, and thence extending over the South American continent, wherever favorable conditions occur.
(2) Euptoieta hegesia, Cramer, Plate VIII, Fig. 8, ♂ (The Mexican Fritillary).
The upper side is marked very much as in the preceding species, but all the lines are finer and somewhat more regular, and the basal and discal areas of the hind wings are without dark spots in most specimens. The under side is less mottled and more uniformly dark rusty-brown than in E. claudia. Expanse, about 2 inches.
The life-history of this species has not as yet been thoroughly worked out, but there is every reason to believe that the insect in its early stages very closely approaches the Variegated Fritillary. It is a Southern form, and only occasionally is taken in Arizona and southern California. It is common in Central and South America.
LUTHER'S SADDEST EXPERIENCE
"Luther, he was persecuted, Excommunicated, hooted, Disappointed, egged, and booted; Yelled at by minutest boys, Waked up by nocturnal noise, Scratched and torn by fiendish cats, Highwayed by voracious rats.
"Oft upon his locks so hoary Water fell from upper story; Oft a turnip or potato Struck upon his back or pate, Oh! And wherever he betook him, A papal bull was sure to hook him.
"But the saddest of all I am forced to relate: Of a diet of worms He was forced to partake— Of a diet of worms For the Protestants' sake; Munching crawling caterpillars, Beetles mixed with moths and millers; Instead of butter, on his bread, A sauce of butterflies was spread. Was not this a horrid feast For a Christian and a priest?