Part 20

Finding it impossible to include this insect, owing to its remarkable form, in any of the genera hitherto proposed, we have been under the necessity of assigning it a new name. Many of its characters seem to be quite peculiar both in the perfect and preparatory states. The species which makes the nearest approach to it is Satyrus Philoctetes, but the differences are considerable, as will be seen by comparing the adjoining figure with that insect. The costal line of the upper wings is very much arched, and the hinder margin is strongly falcate. The external edge of the under wings is likewise falcate posteriorly, and the anal angle is a little produced; the line from that point runs somewhat obliquely nearly to the middle of the hinder edge of the wing, where there is a broad obtuse oblique tail. This outline forms a broad, somewhat square figure, having perhaps rather a heavy appearance, but the curves are graceful. The caterpillar is naked, or covered only with short pubescence, thickest in the middle, and having two very long hairy appendages at the hinder extremity. The chrysalis is short, without any conspicuous projections, the abdominal portion very much incurved.

PLATE 23.

Arpidea Chorinæa, with Caterpiller & Crysalis. Surinam.

Lizars sc.]

The colour of the surface in the above species is deep brown, darkest on the upper wings, which have a wide fulvous sinuated band, rather beyond the middle, commencing at the costa and reaching nearly to the opposite side, where it terminates in a point: the costa is likewise yellowish, and towards the apex there is a round white spot. Posterior wings of a lighter hue round the margin than on the disk, and near the hinder extremity an indistinct row of whitish points. On the under side all the wings are light brown and ash colour, covered with short waved lines of dark brown, and bearing several continuous transverse bands of the same colour, and towards the hinder margin of the inferior pair a row of pale rounded spots. Body brown; prothorax with a fulvous mark.

The caterpillar is very beautifully coloured. The body is reddish, inclining to violet, the sides of the belly and the legs dull yellow. Along the back there is a broad yellow band formed of confluent lozenge-shaped spots, each of them having a dusky line in the centre: head ferruginous, bordered and rayed with yellow. The anal fork is grey, with black ciliæ. This caterpillar feeds on the leaves of the sugar-cane, and changes into a pale brown chrysalis dotted with black, from which the butterfly emerges in about eleven days. The insect is a native of Surinam.

PLATE 24.

1. 2. Helicopis Gnidus. } Surinam. 3. Erycina Octavius. }

Lizars sc.]

HELICOPIS GNIDUS.

PLATE XXIV. Figs. 1 and 2, Fem.

Hesperia Gnidus, Fabr.--Pap. Endymion, Cramer, Pl. 224, C, D, (Male,) E, F, (Fem).--Erycina Gnidus, Godart; Stoll’s Supp. Pl. 4, fig. 5, A, (Cater), 5, B, (Chrysalis).

The genus Helicopis was proposed by Fabricius in his Systema Glossatarum, and he refers to the species above mentioned as one of its typical forms. Although its characters are sufficiently distinctive, it was long confounded with other groups to which it has little relation. It belongs to that section of the diurnal lepidoptera in which the caterpillars are short and depressed, having some resemblance to an oniscus, whence they are called onisciform. The palpi are rather long and slender, and the terminal joint is nearly naked or free from scales. In Helicopis the antennæ terminate in a slightly curved club: the anterior legs are much shorter than the others and clothed with hairs; hinder margin of the anterior wings convex and entire, the corresponding margin of the posterior with six linear tails, the central one much longer than the rest; discoidal cell of the posterior wings open behind; claws very minute. Caterpillar thickly clothed with soft hairs, the chrysalis suspended by the tail, and having a band round the middle.

The best known and most common species of this genus is H. Cupido, which is rather smaller than H. Gnidus. The former is commonly named the Golden-spot, and the latter the Silver-spot Butterfly. The wings of H. Gnidus, in the male, are white on both sides, with a slight tinge of yellow at the base, and the outer margin black. At the hinder extremity of the secondary wings there is a row of narrow white marks, which is double at the anal angle; tails black on both sides, the two longest ones tipped with white. The upper wings beneath have a white line dividing the black border behind the middle, and the under pair are ornamented with twenty-one silvery spots, three of which at either extremity are elongated and placed on a white ground, while the rest are insulated and on a ferruginous ground; all of them edged with black. The female is larger than the sex just described, and differs in having a larger fulvous space at the base of the wings, and in having it bounded externally on the under side of the upper pair by a wide black patch; the greater part of the surface of the hinder wings is black, and the posterior row of white crescents is simple: body white, the thorax yellow; antennæ black, ringed with white.

The caterpillar is white, and clothed with long hairs of the same colour; the head yellow, surmounted by a tuft of red hairs. It feeds on the leaves of the passion-flower, and changes into a brown chrysalis, which has a tuft of red hairs at the head and tail.

This species, as well as H. Cupido, is a native of Surinam.

ERYCINA OCTAVIUS.

PLATE XXIV. Fig. 3.

Pap. Octavius, Fabr. Mant.--Pap. Faunus, Fabr. Species.--Pap. Chorineus, Cramer, Pl. 59, fig. A.

As the above genus at present stands, it contains many insects which have but little affinity to each other, as may be seen by comparing the present figure with that on the following plate, both of which have been usually assigned a place in it. If we have not altered this arrangement, it is not because we do not regard it as improper, but from a reluctance to introduce many partial changes, in a place where it would be irrelevant to enter at length on the general subject of classification. The relation which groups bear to each other can be satisfactorily shown only by treating of the whole; and insulated changes are the less desirable at present, as a general arrangement of the whole class will speedily be laid before the public by an individual who has long directed his attention to the subject. The above-named species belongs to a group in which the upper wings are triangular, and the inferior very much elongated, truncated towards the anal angle, and exteriorly drawn out into a long narrow tail. With the exception of the dark bands and occasional crimson spots, the whole wings are transparent. E. octavius expands about an inch and a half. The upper wings are transparent, the whole of the outer margin, and a band running obliquely across the middle, black. Under wings transparent anteriorly, the remainder, including the tail, black; the anal angle with a large crimson patch. The tail is very narrow, and somewhat whitish on the outer edge and at the tip. The under side resembles the upper, except that the red spots are each marked with two white points.

Found in Surinam.

PLATE 25.

1. 2. Erycina Melibaeus. 3. Loxura Alcides.

1 & 2 from Brazil. 3 Africa.

Lizars sc.]

ERYCINA MELIBÆUS.

PLATE XXV. Figs. 1 and 2.

Pap. E. A. Melibæus, Fabr.--Herbst. Pap. Pl. 59, fig. 4, 5.--Pap. Pyretus, Cramer, Pl. 144, fig. A, B.