Part 22

Very small, brighter red on the under side than on upper. Wings both above and below spotted with small steely-blue metallic markings. Common in Florida, ranging northward to Virginia and westward to Texas. Expanse 0.75 inch.

(2) Charis borealis (Grote & Robinson), Plate LXXVIII, Fig. 4, ♂ (The Northern Metal-mark).

Larger than the preceding species. Upper side sooty brown marked with blacker spots and a marginal and submarginal row of coppery red spots. On the under side the wings are light red with a multitude of small black spots arranged in transverse rows. The metallic spots of the upper side reappear below. Expanse 1.15 inch.

Range from New York to Illinois and Michigan and south to the Carolinas. Rare.

GENUS APODEMIA FELDER (THE MORMONS).

There are about ten species of this genus confined mainly to the Southwestern States and northern Mexico. Some, like the one we figure, are quite small, others are larger, spreading as much as 1.50 inch. They are rather gayly colored, usually with the wings on the upper side checkered or spotted with red, black, and white, and lighter on the under side. None of them have metallic markings on either side.

(1) Apodemia palmeri (Edwards), Plate LXXVIII, Fig. 2, ♂ (Palmer’s Mormon).

One of the smallest species of the genus, mouse-gray, spotted with white above; on the under side whitish gray, laved with pale red at the base of the fore wings, the spots of the upper side reappearing on this side. Expanse 0.75-0.95 inch.

Ranges from Utah to Mexico.

GENUS POLYSTIGMA SALVIN & GODMAN

There is thus far but one species known to belong to this genus, which is marked off from all others by the fact that the males have normally developed fore legs as well as the females, and thus are the “exception” in the family, “which proves the rule.”

(1) Polystigma nais (Edwards), Plate LXXVIII, Fig. 1, ♂, Type (The Many-spot).

The lower side of the wings is pale red mottled with buff on the hind wings; the marks of the upper side reappear below and stand out boldly upon the paler ground. Expanse 1.00-1.25 inch.

P. nais occurs from Colorado to Mexico, east of the Rocky Mountains.

FAMILY LYCÆNIDÆ (THE HAIR-STREAKS, COPPERS, AND BLUES).

Small butterflies. The males have the first pair of legs more or less aborted, and not adapted to walking. Many of the genera are brilliantly blue on the upper side of the wings, others are coppery red. In Africa there are numerous genera which mimic other butterflies in the form and color of their wings. The eggs are turban-shaped adorned with ridges, minute eminences, and networks of raised lines. Under the microscope some of them look like sea-urchins after the spines have fallen off. The caterpillars are slug-shaped, flat; and while most of them feed on vegetable matter a few feed on scale-insects and aphids, and some on the larvæ of ants. The latter are African and Oriental forms. The chrysalids are attached to the place where the caterpillar has pupated by a cincture or girdle.

The family is very large and is represented in all parts of the world, but there are probably more species in the American tropics than in any other quarter of the globe, unless it be in the Malaysian Archipelago and New Guinea, from which a host of species have been described in recent years.

A multitude of refinements in classification have been invented by recent authors and a lot of generic names have been proposed which in this book we shall in part ignore, as they are based upon such slight points that nobody but a man armed with a big microscope can make them out. They puzzle common people, and this book is for laymen and not for the supertechnical.

GENUS EUMÆUS HÜBNER (THE BLUE-SPOTS).

Medium-sized or small. Dark in color, with the borders on the upper and lower sides and the hind wings below beautifully adorned with spots of metallic blue or green. There are three species in the genus, two of which occur in our territory, E. atala, which we figure, and E. minyas, which may be distinguished from the former by its larger size.

(1) Eumæus atala (Poey), Plate LXXIX, Fig. 1, ♂, under side (The Florida Blue-spot).

The figure accurately represents the lower side of this charming insect. Expanse 1.65-1.75 inch.

It is common in southern Florida and Cuba. The other species, E. minyas, which is much larger and equally beautifully marked, is found in southern Texas and thence ranges southward into Brazil.

GENUS THECLA FABRICIUS (THE HAIR-STREAKS).

Mostly small butterflies. On the upper side very often colored with iridescent blue, green, or purple, sometimes reddish or dark brown; on the under side marked with lines and spots variously arranged and often very strikingly colored. What has been said as to the eggs, larvæ, and chrysalids of the family apply as well to this as to many of the following genera, and need not be here repeated.

While students of this group have subdivided extensively, and with scientific propriety have erected a number of genera which are acceptable to specialists, there seems to the writer no need for going into these things in this book, as most of the distinctions drawn are too fine to be appreciated by any but specialists.

(1) Thecla halesus (Cramer), Plate LXXIX, ♂ (The Great Purple Hair-streak).

The upper side is deep purplish blue, as shown in our figure; on the lower side the thorax is black spotted with white, the abdomen orange-red; the wings warm sepia spotted with crimson at their bases, in the males glossed with a stripe of metallic green on the fore wings, and in both sexes adorned at the anal angle by spots of metallic green, red, and iridescent blue. Expanse 1.35-1.50 inch.