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The Thistle Butterflies

"At the Sign of the Thistle" is the favorite lounging-place of many butterflies. But the three following species are such inveterate frequenters of this hospice of the open fields that they have won for themselves the name of the Thistle Butterflies. As if in token of their allegiance to the soft purple-pink blossoms they all wear on the under side of their fore wings, this color intensified so that we call it rose color when we should call it thistle-blossom color. Above they are orange and black with white spots, and the antennæ are tipped with orange. The caterpillars are less spiny than those of the preceding genera and live singly in nests made of silk and the leaves of the food-plant. The chrysalids often have golden tubercles. These three butterflies have a wide range, following the cosmopolitan thistle wherever it flaunts its sign.