Part 17

GENUS PYRRHANÆA SCHATZ

Medium-sized butterflies. Front wings falcate at apex; hind wings tailed at end of third median nervule. Costal margin of fore wing angulated at base, inner margin straight. Upper side of wings generally fulvous or red; lower side mottled and marked so as to resemble dried leaves. Egg spheroid, flattened at base, depressed on top, marked with a few rows of raised points about summit. Caterpillar with head globular, first segment behind it much smaller than head; body cylindrical tapering behind. Chrysalis short, stout, keeled on sides; cremaster globular at tip, and so arranged as to cause the chrysalis to hang at a slant.

This is a large genus characteristic of the American tropics. The larvæ feed on euphorbiaceous and lauraceous plants, after the third moult making hiding-places for themselves by rolling up leaves and tying them with silk. There are three species in the United States, two of which we figure.

(1) Pyrrhanæa andria (Scudder), Plate LV, ♂ (The Goatweed Butterfly).

Bright red above, margins dusky; on under side gray dusted with brown scales. Females marked by incomplete pale bands on the limbal area. Expanse ♂, 2.50; ♀, 3.00 inches. Larva feeds on Croton capitatum. Ranges from Illinois and Nebraska to Texas.

(2) Pyrrhanæa morrisoni (Edwards), Plate LVI, ♀ (Morrison’s Goatweed Butterfly).

More brilliantly and deeply red on upper side than preceding species. Both male and female have the wings with bands of lighter color on the limbal area, but these are not solid, as in the female of P. andria, but made up of spots, as shown in the figure. Expanse 2.25-2.50 inches.

Found in Arizona and Mexico.

The genus which is here engaging our attention is one which is wonderfully well represented in the New World, where it takes the place of the magnificent insects belonging to the genus Charaxes of the tropics of the Old World. On the under side they closely mimic dried leaves. This assimilation to the color of dead leaves is protective.

GENUS AGERONIA HÜBNER (THE CALICOES).

Medium or moderately large-sized butterflies. Costal and subcostal fused near base; cells of both wings closed. Upper side of wings curiously marked with checkered spots, generally some shade of blue with white; under side with broad paler shades: white, yellow, or red. They are rapid fliers, alight on the trunks of trees head downward, wings expanded against the bark of the tree. When they fly they make a clicking sound with their wings. The manner in which this sound is produced is a mystery. Bates in his A Naturalist on the Amazons writes about it but gives no explanation. In my rambles in tropical forests I have heard it as the insects gyrated above my head, but I do not know how the sound is made.

There are about thirty species of the genus in tropical America, two of which are occasionally found in southern Texas.

(1) Ageronia feronia (Linnæus), Plate LVII, ♂ (The White-skirted Calico).

The ground-color of the under side is broadly white, while that of the other species in our fauna, A. fornax, is yellow. They may thus be easily told apart.

GENUS VICTORINA BLANCHARD

(THE MALACHITES).

Large butterflies, conspicuously marked with pale green spots surrounded by darker color. On the under side the wings are paler, and have a satiny lustre, the edges of the light spots on this side marbled with brown. Neuration of fore wing singular in that the upper and lower discocellulars are wanting and the radials seem to spring from the lower side of the subcostal before the middle; the third median is strongly bowed upward. Hind wing tailed at end of the third median nervule.

There are five species of the genus thus far known, all belonging to the American tropics, one of which occurs in Florida and Texas.

(1) Victorina steneles (Linnæus), Plate LVIII, ♂ (The Pearly Malachite).

There is no need of an elaborate description of this species, as it is the only one of its genus in our borders, and the figure we give is fully recognizable. Expanse 3.50-4.00 inches.

SUBFAMILY SATYRINÆ (THE SATYRS).

Butterflies generally of medium size, obscure in color, their wings, especially on the under side, ornamented with dark eye-like spots, pupilled in the centre with a light point and ringed around with one or more circles of lighter color. They have a weak flight, dancing about in the herbage and often hiding among grasses and weeds. Most of them are forest-loving, but some live on the summits of bleak and cold mountains, others on the verge of arctic snows, and some on the prairies. Veins of the fore wings generally greatly swollen at the base, thus enabling them to be distinguished from almost all other butterflies. Eggs subspherical, somewhat higher than broad, ribbed on the sides, particularly at the apex, and rounded at the base. Caterpillars, when they emerge from the egg, have their heads much bigger in diameter than the rest of the body, but as they mature they lose this feature, and generally taper from the middle of the body in either direction. Anal pro-legs bifurcating, thus readily distinguished from all other caterpillars, except those of the genus Chlorippe. They feed upon grasses and sedges, concealing themselves in the daytime and coming forth to feed at night. Chrysalids short and stout, plain both in color and outline.

There are about sixty species of Satyrinæ in the region with which this manual deals, falling into ten genera. We shall only deal with the commoner species.

GENUS DEBIS WESTWOOD

(THE EYED NYMPHS).

This is a large genus, especially well represented in Asia and the Indo-Malayan region. Dr. S. H. Scudder set apart the two species we have in our fauna from the Asiatic forms, under the new name Enodia, but I have never been able to see any good reason for this, and keep the generic name as it has long stood. The creation of new genera upon the basis of slight differences is to be deprecated and avoided.

(1) Debis portlandia (Fabricius), Plate LIX, ♂ (The Pearly Eye).

The butterfly which is well depicted in our figure has a series of beautiful ocelli on the under side. There is no great difference between the sexes. In the Northern States it is single-brooded, in the South it is double-brooded. Expanse of wing 1.75-2.00 inches.