Part 41

GENUS LEREMA SCUDDER

(1) Lerema accius (Smith & Abbot), Plate CXLIX, Fig. 1, ♂ (The Grimy Skipper).

The wings on the under side are dark fuscous clouded with still deeper brown or black. Expanse 1.40-1.50 inch.

Occurs from Connecticut to Central America, being quite rare in the north but very common in the hot lands of the south.

(2) Lerema hianna (Scudder), Plate CXLIX, Fig. 2, ♂ (The Dusted Skipper).

The upper side is well represented in our figure. On the under side the wings are a little paler, especially the hind wings, which on their outer half are dusted with gray, in certain lights having a bluish cast. Expanse 1.15-1.25 inch.

Ranges from New England to Nebraska and southward, but, so far as the writer knows not reaching the Gulf States.

SUBFAMILY MEGATHYMINÆ (THE GIANT SKIPPERS).

These curious insects have been by some writers placed among the Castniidæ, a family of day-flying moths, but as the author stated in 1898 in “The Butterfly Book,” they appear to have much more in common with the Hesperiidæ than the Castniidæ. The proposition to include them in the Hesperiidæ as a subfamily under the name given above has since that time been generally accepted by systematists. There are a number of species belonging to the genus Megathymus, several of which occur within our faunal limits, but we shall content ourselves with figuring only the one, which those readers of this book who live in Missouri and south and west of that state are likely to see.

GENUS MEGATHYMUS RILEY

(1) Megathymus yuccæ (Boisduval & Leconte), Plate CL, ♀ (The Yucca Skipper).

The caterpillar of this species is a wood-borer, feeding in the pith and on the underground roots of different species of Yucca. The life history has been beautifully worked out by the late Prof. C. V. Riley, who published a full account of his observations in his “Eighth Annual Report of the State Entomologist of Missouri,” pp. 169 et seq., and in the “Transactions of the St. Louis Academy of Science,” Vol. III, pp. 323 et seq. The student will do well to refer to these interesting papers. The figure we give on the plate is that of a female specimen bred by Professor Riley in Missouri and presented by him to the late W. H. Edwards, whose collection is now the property of the writer.

INDEX OF ENGLISH OR TRIVIAL NAMES, AND COMMON TERMS

Aaron’s Skipper, 220

Abdomen of butterfly, 22

Acadian Hair-streak, The, 153

Admiral, Lorquin’s, 113; Red, 99, 100; White, 110

Alpines, The; Common, 133; Red-streaked, 133

American Copper, The, 161

Angle-wings, The, 92; Currant, 96

Antennæ, 13

Aphrodite, 75

Araxes Skipper, The, 199

Arctics, The, 140; Katahdin, 141; Macoun’s, 142

Arctic Skipper, The, 209

Arizona Blackamoor, The, 134; Checker-spot, 85

Bag-veins, The, 105; Texas, 106

Baltimore, The, 83