Part 21

(1) Paramecera xicaque (Reakirt), Plate LXXII, Fig. 2, ♂ (Reakirt’s Satyr).

The insect has an expanse of wing varying from 1.35-1.75 inch. It is not uncommon in southern Arizona and northern Mexico.

GENUS ŒNEIS HÜBNER (THE ARCTICS).

Medium-sized butterflies, above some shade of light or dark brown; below marbled and mottled, often with a dark median band crossing both wings. The fringes are brown checkered with white. They live in the cold north or on the tops of high mountains. One of the best-known species is the White Mountain Butterfly, O. semidea, which exists on the summit of Mt. Washington, New Hampshire. The eggs are ovate-spheroid, ribbed, and are laid on dry grasses near the spot where grass will grow in the following spring. The caterpillars, when mature, are cylindrical, tapering from the middle both ways, pale green or brown, with darker longitudinal stripes, feeding on grasses. The chrysalids are stout, a little angulated, and are formed, unattached, under stones or at the roots of grass in a slight depression where the caterpillar has deposited a few threads of silk.

There are a score or more of species in our fauna, of which most occur on the tops of high northern mountains or near the Arctic Circle.

(1) Œneis jutta (Hübner), Plate LXXIV, Fig. 1, ♂; Fig. 2, ♀ (The Nova Scotian).

This species, found also in Europe, is one of the most conspicuous of its tribe. It is not uncommon in the State of Maine, ranging northward from Bangor through Nova Scotia, thence westward to Ottawa and the Hudson Bay country. Expanse 1.80-2.10 inches.

(2) Œneis semidea (Say), Plate LXXV, Fig. 1, ♀ (The White Mountain Butterfly).

The wings are very thin and semi-translucent. Restricted to the summit of Mount Washington, New Hampshire, and some of the alpine peaks in the Rocky Mountains. It is also found in Labrador, and no doubt in corresponding latitudes about Hudson Bay and westward. Expanse 1.75 inch.

(3) Œneis katahdin Newcomb, Plate LXXV, Fig. 2, ♂ (The Katahdin Butterfly).

Closely allied to the preceding species, from which it may be distinguished by its paler wings and the irregular dark band on the under side of the hind wings about their middle. Expanse 1.75 inch.

This insect in recent years has been found to inhabit the summit of Mount Katahdin in Maine.

(4) Œneis macouni (Edwards), Plate LXXVI, ♂. Type (Macoun’s Arctic).

More like O. jutta in the form of the wings, but differs in coloration. It belongs to a group of species included in this genus, most of which are found in the region of the Rocky Mountains, which are larger and yellower on the upper side of the wings than the two preceding species. Expanse 2.00-2.25 inches.

Not uncommon about Lake Nipigon, north of Lake Superior.

SUBFAMILY LIBYTHEINÆ (THE SNOUT-BUTTERFLIES).

These insects may readily be distinguished from all others by their long projecting palpi, and by the fact that the males have only four feet adapted to walking while the females have six, a fact which seems to ally them to the Erycinidæ. On the other hand, the chrysalis is pendent as in the Nymphalidæ. There is but one genus of the group represented in our faunal region.

GENUS LIBYTHEA FABRICIUS (THE SNOUT-BUTTERFLIES).

Small butterflies, the palpi enormously produced in comparison with other butterflies. The fore wings are strongly excavated on the outer margin, and produced at the end of the lower radial. The hind wing is upwardly lobed at the base, excised before the outer angle, and the outer margin is somewhat scalloped. The egg is ovoid, nearly twice as high as wide, ribbed, every other rib being higher than the one beside it and increasing in height toward the top. The caterpillar has a small head, overarched by the anterior swollen segments; it lives upon the hackberry (Celtis). The chrysalis has the abdomen conical, the head pointed, with two raised ridges running from the head on either side to the middle of the first segment of the abdomen; between these ridges is a low tubercle.

There are numerous species found in all parts of the world, but only three occur within our limits. Of these we figure the one which is most widely distributed.

(1) Libythea bachmani Kirtland, Plate LXXVII, ♂ (The Common Snout-butterfly).

The figure we give will enable the student to immediately recognize the insect.

It ranges from New England and Ontario southward and westward over the whole country as far as Arizona and northern Mexico.

FAMILY ERYCINIDÆ (THE METAL-MARKS).

This is a great family of small or rather less than medium-sized butterflies, which is found in both the eastern and western hemispheres, but is mostly confined to the American tropics, where there are known to be about a thousand species, some of them remarkably beautiful in their colors and markings. The males have the fore legs aborted as in the case of the Nymphalidæ, while the females have six legs for walking. In this respect they resemble the Lycænidæ. The chrysalids are not pendent as are those of all the insects which we have hitherto described in this book, but are held in place by a silken girdle, and are closely appressed to the supporting surface. The strongest mark of distinction from other butterflies is the fact that the precostal vein of the hind wing is located on the extreme inner margin of the wing and sends out a little free hook, very much as is the case in many of the moths. The antennæ are very long and slender, distinctly knobbed at the end. Many genera have the peculiarity when alighting of not folding their wings, but carrying them flat, and they have also the habit of hiding under leaves, like moths. Most of the species found in our region occur in the Southwestern States, two alone are found in the Eastern States.

GENUS CHARIS HÜBNER (THE METAL-MARKS).

There are nearly fifty species of this genus found in the American tropics. There are but two species in the eastern parts of the United States, and two others in California. The figures we give will enable any one to tell apart the two species found in the Atlantic region.

(1) Charis cænius (Linnæus), Plate LXXVIII, Fig. 3, ♂ (The Little Metal-mark).