Chapter IV: Books About North American Butterflies (1)

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_Early Writers._--The earliest descriptions of North American butterflies are found in writings which are now almost unknown, except to the close student of science. Linnæus described and named a number of the commoner North American species, and some of them were figured by Charles Clerck, his pupil, whose work entitled "Icones" was published at Stockholm in the year 1759. Clerck's work is exceedingly rare, and the writer believes that he has in his possession the only copy in North America. Johann Christian Fabricius, a pupil of Linnæus, who was for some time a professor in Kiel, and attached to the court of the King of Denmark, published between the year 1775 and the year 1798 a number of works upon the general subject of entomology, in which he gave descriptions, very brief and unsatisfactory, of a number of North American species. His descriptions were written, as were those of Linnæus, in the Latin language. About the same time that Fabricius was publishing his works, Peter Cramer, a Dutchman, was engaged in giving to the world the four large quartos in which he endeavored to figure and describe the butterflies and moths of Asia, Africa, and America. Cramer's work was entitled "Papillons Exotiques," and contained recognizable illustrations of quite a number of the North American forms. The book, however, is rare and expensive to-day, but few copies of it being accessible to American students.

Jacob Hübner, who was born at Augsburg in the year 1761, undertook the publication, in the early part of the present century, of an elaborate work upon the European butterflies and moths, parallel with which he undertook a publication upon the butterflies and moths of foreign lands. The title of his work is "Sammlung Exotischer Schmetterlinge." To this work was added, as an appendix, partly by Hübner and partly by his successor and co-laborer, Karl Geyer, another, entitled "Zuträge zur Sammlung Exotischer Schmetterlinge." The two works together are illustrated by six hundred and sixty-four colored plates. This great publication contains some scattered figures of North American species. A good copy sells for from three hundred and fifty to four hundred dollars, or even more.

The first work which was devoted exclusively to an account of the lepidoptera of North America was published in England by Sir James Edward Smith, who was a botanist, and who gave to the world in two volumes some of the plates which had been drawn by John Abbot, an Englishman who lived for a number of years in Georgia. The work appeared in two folio volumes, bearing the date 1797. It is entitled "The Natural History of the Rarer Lepidopterous Insects of Georgia." It contains one hundred and four plates, in which the insects are represented in their various stages upon their appropriate food-plants. Smith and Abbot's work contains original descriptions of only about half a dozen of the North American butterflies, and figures a number of species which had been already described by earlier authors. It is mainly devoted to the moths. This work is now rare and commands a very high price.

The next important work upon the subject was published by Dr. J.A. Boisduval of Paris, a celebrated entomologist, who was assisted by Major John E. Leconte. The work appeared in the year 1833, and is entitled "Histoire Générale et Monographie des Lepidoptères et des Chenilles de l'Amérique Septentrionale." It contains seventy-eight colored plates, each representing butterflies of North America, in many cases giving figures of the larva and the chrysalis as well as of the perfect insect. The plates were based very largely upon drawings made by John Abbot, and represent ninety-three species, while in the text there are only eighty-five species mentioned, some of which are not figured. What has been said of all the preceding works is also true of this: it is very rarely offered for sale, can only be found upon occasion, and commands a high price.

In the year 1841 Dr. Thaddeus William Harris published "A Report on the Insects of Massachusetts which are Injurious to Vegetation." This work, which was originally brought out in pursuance of an order of the legislature of Massachusetts, by the Commissioners of the Zoölogical and Botanical Survey of the State, was republished in 1842, and was followed by a third edition in 1852. The last edition, revised and improved by Charles L. Flint, Secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture, appeared in 1862. This work contains a number of figures and descriptions of the butterflies of New England, and, while now somewhat obsolete, still contains a great deal of valuable information, and is well worth being rescued by the student from the shelves of the second-hand book-stalls in which it is now and then to be found. For the New England student of entomology it remains to a greater or less extent a classic.

In 1860 the Smithsonian Institution published a "Catalogue of the Described Lepidoptera of North America," a compilation prepared by the Rev. John G. Morris. This work, though very far from complete, contains in a compact form much valuable information, largely extracted from the writings of previous authors. It is not illustrated.

With the book prepared by Dr. Morris the first period in the development of a literature relating to our subject may be said to close, and the reader will observe that until the end of the sixth decade of this century very little had been attempted in the way of systematically naming, describing, and illustrating the riches of the insect fauna of this continent. Almost all the work, with the exception of that done by Harris, Leconte, and Morris, had been done by European authors.

_Later Writers._--At the close of the Civil War this country witnessed a great intellectual awakening, and every department of science began to find its zealous students. In the annals of entomology the year 1868 is memorable because of the issue of the first part of the great work by William H. Edwards, entitled "The Butterflies of North America." This work has been within the last year (1897) brought to completion with the publication of the third volume, and stands as a superb monument to the scientific attainments and the inextinguishable industry of its learned author. The three volumes are most superbly illustrated, and contain a wealth of original drawings, representing all the stages in the life-history of numerous species, which has never been surpassed. Unfortunately, while including a large number of the species known to inhabit North America, the book is nevertheless not what its title would seem to imply, and is far from complete, several hundreds of species not being represented in any way, either in the text or in the illustrations. In spite of this fact it will remain to the American student a classic, holding a place in the domain of entomology analogous to that which is held in the science of ornithology by the "Birds of America," by Audubon.

A work even more elaborate in its design and execution, contained in three volumes, is "The Butterflies of New England," by Dr. Samuel Hubbard Scudder, published in the year 1886. No more superbly illustrated and exhaustive monograph on any scientific subject has ever been published than this, and it must remain a lasting memorial of the colossal industry and vast learning of the author, one of the most eminent scientific men whom America has produced.

While the two great works which have been mentioned have illustrated to the highest degree not only the learning of their authors, but the vast advances which have been made in the art of illustration within the last thirty years, they do not stand alone as representing the activity of students in this field. A number of smaller, but useful, works have appeared from time to time. Among these must be mentioned "The Butterflies of the Eastern United States," by Professor G.H. French. This book, which contains four hundred and two pages and ninety-three figures in the text, was published in Philadelphia in 1886. It is an admirable little work, with the help of which the student may learn much in relation to the subject; but it greatly lacks in illustration, without which all such publications are not attractive or thoroughly useful to the student. In the same year appeared "The Butterflies of New England," by C.J. Maynard, a quarto containing seventy-two pages of text and eight colored plates, the latter very poor. In 1878 Herman Strecker of Reading, Pennsylvania, published a book entitled "Butterflies and Moths of North America," which is further entitled "A Complete Synonymical Catalogue." It gives only the synonymy of some four hundred and seventy species of butterflies, and has never been continued by the author, as was apparently his intention. It makes no mention of the moths, except upon the title-page. For the scientific student it has much value, but is of no value to a beginner. The same author published in parts a work illustrated by fifteen colored plates, entitled "Lepidoptera-Rhopaloceres and Heteroceres--Indigenous and Exotic," which came out from 1872 to 1879, and contains recognizable figures of many North American species.

In 1891 there appeared in Boston, from the pen of C.J. Maynard, a work entitled "A Manual of North American Butterflies." This is illustrated by ten very poorly executed plates and a number of equally poorly executed cuts in the text. The work is unfortunately characterized by a number of serious defects which make its use difficult and unsatisfactory for the correct determination of species and their classification.

In 1893 Dr. Scudder published two books, both of them useful, though brief, one of them entitled "The Life of a Butterfly," the other, "A Brief Guide to the Commoner Butterflies of the Northern United States and Canada." Both of these books were published in New York by Messrs. Henry Holt & Co., and contain valuable information in relation to the subject, being to a certain extent an advance upon another work published in 1881 by the same author and firm, entitled "Butterflies."

_Periodical Literature._--The reader must not suppose that the only literature relating to the subject that we are considering is to be found in the volumes that have been mentioned. The original descriptions and the life-histories of a large number of the species of the butterflies of North America have originally appeared in the pages of scientific periodicals and in the journals and proceedings of different learned societies. Among the more important publications which are rich in information in regard to our theme may be mentioned the publications relating to entomology issued by the United States National Museum, the United States Department of Agriculture, and by the various American commonwealths, chief among the latter being Riley's "Missouri Reports." Exceedingly valuable are many of the papers contained in the "Transactions of the American Entomological Society," "Psyche," the "Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society" (1872-85), "Papilio" (1881-84), "Entomologica Americana" (1885-90), the "Journal of the New York Entomological Society," the "Canadian Entomologist," and "Entomological News." All of these journals are mines of original information, and the student who proposes to master the subject thoroughly will do well to obtain, if possible, complete sets of these periodicals, as well as of a number of others which might be mentioned, and to subscribe for such of them as are still being published.

There are a number of works upon general entomology, containing chapters upon the diurnal lepidoptera, which may be consulted with profit. Among the best of these are the following: "A Guide to the Study of Insects," by A.S. Packard, Jr., M.D. (Henry Holt & Co., New York, 1883, pp. 715, 8vo); "A Textbook of Entomology," by Alpheus S. Packard, M.D., etc. (The Macmillan Company, New York, 1898, pp. 729, 8vo); "A Manual for the Study of Insects," by John Henry Comstock (Comstock Publishing Company, Ithaca, New York, 1895, pp. 701, 8vo).

HUGO'S "FLOWER TO BUTTERFLY"

"Sweet, live with me, and let my love
Be an enduring tether;
Oh, wanton not from spot to spot,
But let us dwell together.

"You've come each morn to sip the sweets
With which you found me dripping,
Yet never knew it was not dew,
But tears, that you were sipping.

"You gambol over honey meads
Where siren bees are humming;
But mine the fate to watch and wait
For my beloved's coming.

"The sunshine that delights you now
Shall fade to darkness gloomy;
You should not fear if, biding here,
You nestled closer to me.

"So rest you, love, and be my love,
That my enraptured blooming
May fill your sight with tender light,
Your wings with sweet perfuming.

"Or, if you will not bide with me
Upon this quiet heather,
Oh, give me wing, thou beauteous thing,
That we may soar together."

EUGENE FIELD.

THE BUTTERFLIES

NORTH AMERICA NORTH OF MEXICO

"Lo, the bright train their radiant wings unfold!
With silver fringed, and freckled o'er with gold:
On the gay bosom of some fragrant flower
They, idly fluttering, live their little hour;
Their life all pleasure, and their task all play,
All spring their age, and sunshine all their day."

MRS. BARBAULD

ORDER LEPIDOPTERA SUBORDER RHOPALOCERA (BUTTERFLIES)

FAMILY I

NYMPHALIDÆ (THE BRUSH-FOOTED BUTTERFLIES)

The family of the Nymphalidæ is composed of butterflies which are of medium and large size, though a few of the genera are made up of species which are quite small. They may be distinguished from all other butterflies by the fact that the first pair of legs in both sexes is atrophied or greatly reduced in size, so that they cannot be used in walking, but are carried folded up upon the breast. The fore feet, except in the case of the female of the snout-butterflies (Libytheinæ), are without tarsal claws, and hence the name "Brush-footed Butterflies" has been applied to them. As the anterior pair of legs is apparently useless, they have been called "The Four-footed Butterflies," which is scientifically a misnomer.

_Egg._--The eggs of the Nymphalidæ, for the most part, are dome-shaped or globular, and are marked with raised longitudinal lines extending from the summit toward the base over the entire surface or over the upper portion of the egg. Between these elevations are often found finer and less elevated cross-lines. In a few genera the surface of the eggs is covered with reticulation arranged in geometrical patterns (see Fig. 1).

_Caterpillar._--The caterpillars of the Nymphalidæ, as they emerge from the egg, have heads the diameter of which is larger than that of the body, and covered with a number of wart-like elevations from which hairs arise. The body of the immature larva generally tapers from before backward (see Plate III, Figs. 7 and 11). The mature larva is cylindrical in form, sometimes, as in the Satyrinæ, thicker in the middle. Often one or more of the segments are greatly swollen in whole or in part. The larvæ are generally ornamented with fleshy projections or branching spines.

_Chrysalids._--The chrysalids are for the most part angular, and often have strongly marked projections. As a rule, they hang with the head downward, having the cremaster, or anal hook, attached to a button of silk woven to the under surface of a limb of a tree, a stone, or some other projecting surface. A few boreal species construct loose coverings of threads of silk at the roots of grasses, and here undergo their transformations. The chrysalids are frequently ornamented with golden or silvery spots.

This is the largest of all the families of butterflies, and it is also the most widely distributed. It is represented by species which have their abode in the cold regions of the far North and upon the lofty summits of mountains, where summer reigns for but a few weeks during the year; and it is enormously developed in equatorial lands, including here some of the most gloriously colored species in the butterfly world. But although these insects appear to have attained their most superb development in the tropics, they are more numerous in the temperate regions than other butterflies, and a certain fearlessness, and fondness for the haunts of men, which seems to characterize some of them, has brought them more under the eyes of observers. The literature of poetry and prose which takes account of the life of the butterfly has mainly dealt with forms belonging to this great assemblage of species.

In the classification of the brush-footed butterflies various subdivisions have been suggested by learned authors, but the species found in the United States and the countries lying northward upon the continent may be all included in the following six groups, or subfamilies:

1. The _Euploeinoe_, the Euploeids.
2. The _Ithomiinoe_, the Ithomiids.
3. The _Heliconiinoe_, the Heliconians.
4. The _Nymphalinoe_, the Nymphs.
5. The _Satyrinoe_, the Satyrs.
6. The _Libytheinoe_, the Snout-butterflies.
The insects belonging to these different subfamilies may be
distinguished by the help of the following analytical table, which is
based upon that of Professor Comstock, given in his "Manual for the
Study of Insects" (p. 396), which in turn is based upon that of Dr.
Scudder, in "The Butterflies of New England" (vol. i, p. 115).

KEY TO THE SUBFAMILIES OF THE NYMPHALIDÆ OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA

I. With the veins of the fore wings not greatly swollen at the base.

_A._ Antennæ naked.
(_a_) Fore wings less than twice as long as broad--_Euploeinoe_.
(_b_) Fore wings twice as long as broad and often translucent, the
abdomen extending far beyond the inner margin of the hind
wings--_Ithomiinoe_.

_B._ Antennæ clothed with scales, at least above.
(_a_) Fore wings at least twice as long as broad--_Heliconiinoe_.
(_b_) Fore wings less than twice as long as broad.
1. Palpi not as long as the thorax--_Nymphalinoe_.
2. Palpi much longer than the thorax--_Libytheinoe_.

II. With some of the veins of the fore wings greatly swollen at the
base--_Satyrinoe_.

We now proceed to present the various genera and species of this family which occur within the territorial limits of which this book treats. The reader will do well to accompany the study of the descriptions, which are at most mere sketches, by a careful examination of the figures in the plates. In this way a very clear idea of the different species can in most instances be obtained. But with the study of the book should always go, if possible, the study of the living things themselves. Knowledge of nature founded upon books is at best second-hand. To the fields and the woods, then, net in hand! Splendid as may be the sight of a great collection of butterflies from all parts of the world, their wings

"Gleaming with purple and gold,"

no vision is so exquisite and so inspiring as that which greets the true aurelian as in shady dell or upon sun-lit upland, with the blue sky above him and the flowers all around him, he pursues his pleasant, self-imposed tasks, drinking in health at every step.

SUBFAMILY EUPLOEINÆ (THE MILKWEED BUTTERFLIES)

"Lazily flying
Over the flower-decked prairies, West;
Basking in sunshine till daylight is dying,
And resting all night on Asclepias' breast;
Joyously dancing,
Merrily prancing,
Chasing his lady-love high in the air,
Fluttering gaily,
Frolicking daily,
Free from anxiety, sorrow, and care!"

C.V. RILEY.

_Butterfly._--Large butterflies; head large; the antennæ inserted on the summit, stout, naked, that is to say, not covered with scales, the club long and not broad; palpi stout; the thorax somewhat compressed, with the top arched. The abdomen is moderately stout, bearing on the eighth segment, on either side, in the case of the male, clasps which are quite conspicuous. The fore wings are greatly produced at the apex and more or less excavated about the middle of the outer border; the hind wings are rounded and generally much smaller than the fore wings; the outer margin is regular, without tails, and the inner margin is sometimes channeled so as to enfold the abdomen. The fore legs are greatly atrophied in the male, less so in the female; these atrophied legs are not provided with claws, but on the other legs the claws are well developed.

_Egg._--The eggs are ovate conical, broadly flattened at the base and slightly truncated at the top, with many longitudinal ribs and transverse cross-ridges (see Fig. 4).

_Caterpillar._--On emerging from the chrysalis the head is not larger than the body; the body has a few scattered hairs on each segment. On reaching maturity the head is small, the body large, cylindrical, without hair, and conspicuously banded with dark stripes upon a lighter ground, and on some of the segments there are generally erect fleshy processes of considerable length (see Fig. 16). The caterpillars feed upon different species of the milkweed (_Asclepias_).

_Chrysalis._--The chrysalis is relatively short and thick, rounded, with very few projections, tapers very rapidly over the posterior part of the abdomen, and is suspended by a long cremaster from a button of silk (see Fig. 24). The chrysalis is frequently ornamented with golden or silver spots.

This subfamily reaches its largest development in the tropical regions of Asia. Only one genus is represented in our fauna, the genus _Anosia_.

Genus ANOSIA, Hübner

_Butterfly._--Large-sized butterflies; fore wings long, greatly produced at the apex, having a triangular outline, the outer margin approximately as long as the inner margin; the costal border is regularly bowed; the outer border is slightly excavated, the outer angle rounded; the hind wings are well rounded, the costal border projecting just at the base, the inner margin likewise projecting at the base and depressed so as to form a channel clasping the abdomen. On the edge of the first median nervule of the male, about its middle, there is a scent-pouch covered with scales.

_Egg._--The egg is ovate conical, ribbed perpendicularly with many raised cross-lines between the ridges. The eggs are pale green in color.

_Caterpillar._--The caterpillar is cylindrical, fleshy, transversely wrinkled, and has on the second thoracic and eighth abdominal segment pairs of very long and slender fleshy filaments; the body is ornamented by dark bands upon a greenish-yellow ground-color; the filaments are black.

_Chrysalis._--The chrysalis is stout, cylindrical, rapidly tapering on the abdomen, and is suspended from a button of silk by a long cremaster. The color of the chrysalis is pale green, ornamented with golden spots.

The larvæ of the genus _Anosia_ feed for the most part upon the varieties of milkweed (_Asclepias_), and they are therefore called "milkweed butterflies." There are two species of the genus found in our fauna, one, _Anosia plexippus_, Linnæus, which is distributed over the entire continent as far north as southern Canada, and the other, _Anosia berenice_, Cramer, which is confined to the extreme southwestern portions of the United States, being found in Texas and Arizona.

(1) =Anosia plexippus=, Linnæus, Plate VII, Fig. 1, ♂ (The Monarch).

_Butterfly._--The upper surface of the wings of this butterfly is bright reddish, with the borders and veins broadly black, with two rows of white spots on the outer borders and two rows of pale spots of moderately large size across the apex of the fore wings. The males have the wings less broadly bordered with black than the females, and on the first median nervule of the hind wings there is a black scent-pouch.

_Egg._--The egg is ovate conical, and is well represented in Fig. 4 in the introductory chapter of this book.

_Caterpillar._--The caterpillar is bright yellow or greenish-yellow, banded with shining black, and furnished with black fleshy thread-like appendages before and behind. It likewise is well delineated in Fig. 16, as well as in Plate III, Fig. 5.

_Chrysalis._--The chrysalis is about an inch in length, pale green, spotted with gold (see Fig. 24, and Plate IV, Figs. 1-3).

The butterfly is believed to be polygoneutic, that is to say, many broods are produced annually; and it is believed by writers that with the advent of cold weather these butterflies migrate to the South, the chrysalids and caterpillars which may be undeveloped at the time of the frosts are destroyed, and that when these insects reappear, as they do every summer, they represent a wave of migration coming northward from the warmer regions of the Gulf States. It is not believed that any of them hibernate in any stage of their existence. This insect sometimes appears in great swarms on the eastern and southern coasts of New Jersey in late autumn. The swarms pressing southward are arrested by the ocean. The writer has seen stunted trees on the New Jersey coast in the middle of October, when the foliage has already fallen, so completely covered with clinging masses of these butterflies as to present the appearance of trees in full leaf (Fig. 79).

This butterfly is a great migrant, and within quite recent years, with Yankee instinct, has crossed the Pacific, probably on merchant vessels, the chrysalids being possibly concealed in bales of hay, and has found lodgment in Australia, where it has greatly multiplied in the warmer parts of the Island Continent, and has thence spread northward and westward, until in its migrations it has reached Java and Sumatra, and long ago took possession of the Philippines. Moving eastward on the lines of travel, it has established a more or less precarious foothold for itself in southern England, as many as two or three dozen of these butterflies having been taken in a single year in the United Kingdom. It is well established at the Cape Verde Islands, and in a short time we may expect to hear of it as having taken possession of the continent of Africa, in which the family of plants upon which the caterpillars feed is well represented.

(2) =Anosia berenice=, Cramer, Plate VII, Fig. 2, ♂ (The Queen).

This butterfly is smaller than the Monarch, and the ground-color of the wings is a livid brown. The markings are somewhat similar to those in _A. plexippus_, but the black borders of the hind wings are relatively wider, and the light spots on the apex of the fore wings are whiter and differently located, as may be learned from the figures given in Plate VII.

There is a variety of this species, which has been called =Anosia strigosa= by H.W. Bates (Plate VII, Fig. 3, ♂), which differs only in that on the upper surface of the hind wings the veins as far as the black outer margin are narrowly edged with grayish-white, giving them a streaked appearance. This insect is found in Texas, Arizona, and southern New Mexico.

All of the Euploeinæ are "protected" insects, being by nature provided with secretions which are distasteful to birds and predaceous insects. These acrid secretions are probably due to the character of the plants upon which the caterpillars feed, for many of them eat plants which are more or less rank, and some of them even poisonous to the higher orders of animals. Enjoying on this account immunity from attack, they have all, in the process of time, been mimicked by species in other genera which have not the same immunity. This protective resemblance is well illustrated in Plate VII. The three upper figures in the plate represent, as we have seen, species of the genus _Anosia_; the two lower figures represent two species of the genus _Basilarchia_. Fig. 4 is the male of _B. disippus_, a very common species in the northern United States, which mimicks the Monarch. Fig. 5 represents the same sex of _B. hulstii_, a species which is found in Arizona, and there flies in company with the Queen, and its variety, _A. strigosa_, which latter it more nearly resembles.

SUBFAMILY ITHOMIINÆ (THE LONG-WINGS)

"There be Insects with little hornes proaking out before their
eyes, but weak and tender they be, and good for nothing; as the
Butterflies."--PLINY, PHILEMON HOLLAND'S Translation.

_Butterfly._--This subfamily is composed for the most part of species of moderate size, though a few are quite large. The fore wings are invariably greatly lengthened and are generally at least twice as long as broad. The hind wings are relatively small, rounded, and without tails. The wings in many of the genera are transparent. The extremity of the abdomen in both sexes extends far beyond the margin of the hind wings, but in the female not so much as in the male. The antennæ are not clothed with scales, and are very long and slender, with the club also long and slender, gradually thickening to the tip, which is often drooping. The fore legs are greatly atrophied in the males, the tibia and tarsi in this sex being reduced to a minute knob-like appendage, but being more strongly developed in the females.

The life-history of none of the species reputed to be found in our fauna has been carefully worked out. The larvæ are smooth, covered in most genera with longitudinal rows of conical prominences.

The chrysalids are said to show a likeness to those of the Euploeinæ, being short, thick, and marked with golden spots. Some authors are inclined to view this subfamily as merely constituting a section of the Euploeinæ. The insects are, however, so widely unlike the true Euploeinæ that it seems well to keep them separate in our system of classification. In appearance they approach the Heliconians more nearly than the Euploeids. Ithomiid butterflies swarm in the tropics of the New World, and several hundreds of species are known to inhabit the hot lands of Central and South America. But one genus is found in the Old World, _Hamadryas_, confined to the Australian region. They are protected like the Euploeids and the Heliconians. In flight they are said to somewhat resemble the dragon-flies of the genus _Agrion_, their narrow wings, greatly elongated bodies, and slow, flitting motion recalling these insects, which are known by schoolboys as "darning-needles."

Three genera are said to be represented in the extreme southwestern portion of the United States. I myself have never received specimens of any of them which indisputably came from localities within our limits, and no such specimens are found in the great collection of Mr. W.H. Edwards, which is now in my possession. A paratype of Reakirt's species, _Mechanitis californica_, is contained in the collection of Theodore L. Mead, which I also possess. Mr. Mead obtained it from Herman Strecker of Reading, Pennsylvania. Reakirt gives Los Angeles as the locality from which his type came; but whether he was right in this is open to question, inasmuch, so far as is known, the species has not been found in that neighborhood since described by Reakirt.

Genus MECHANITIS, Fabricius

_Butterfly._--Butterflies of moderate size, with the fore wings greatly produced, the inner margin bowed out just beyond the base, and deeply excavated between this projection and the inner angle. The lower discocellular vein in the hind wings is apparently continuous with the median vein, and the lower radial vein being parallel with the median nervules, the median vein has in consequence the appearance of being four-branched. The submedian vein of the fore wings is forked at the base. The costal margin of the hind wings is clothed with tufted erect hairs in the male sex. The fore legs of the male are greatly atrophied, the tarsi and the tibia being fused and reduced to a small knob-like appendage. The fore legs of the female are also greatly reduced, but the tarsi and tibia are still recognizable as slender, thread-like organs.

The caterpillars are smooth, cylindrical, ornamented with rows of short fleshy projections.

The chrysalids are short and stout, suspended, and marked with golden spots.

There are numerous species belonging to this genus, all natives of tropical America. The only species said to be found within the limits of the United States occurs, if at all, in southern California. It is, however, probably only found in the lower peninsula of California, which is Mexican territory. No examples from Upper California are known to the writer.

(1) =Mechanitis californica=, Reakirt, Plate VIII, Fig. 2, ♂ (The Californian Long-wing).

The original description given by Reakirt in the "Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Philadelphia," vol. v, p. 223, is as follows:

"Expanse, 2.45-2.56 inches. Fore wing above, brownish-black; a basal streak over the median nervure, and two rounded spots near the inner angle, orange-tawny; of these the outer is the largest, sometimes the inner is yellow, and sometimes both are nearly obsolete; a spot across the cell near its termination, much narrower than in _M. isthmia_, and in one example reduced to a mere dot on the median nervure; a more or less interrupted belt across the wing from the costa to near the middle of the outer margin, and an oblong subapical spot, yellow; in the specimen just mentioned there is an additional yellow spot below the medio-central veinlet.

"Beneath the same, suffused with orange-tawny at the base and the inner angle, with a row of eight or nine submarginal white spots along the outer margin.

"Hind wing above, orange-tawny, with a broad mesial band, entire, and a narrow outer border, from the middle of the costa to the anal angle, brownish-black.

"Beneath the same, a yellow spot on the root of the wing; a band runs along the subcostal nervure from the base to the margin, where it is somewhat dilated; immediately below its termination, a mark in the form of an irregular figure 2, usually with the upper part inordinately enlarged; between this and the base, on the central line of the band above, three small subtriangular spots; all these markings blackish-brown; a submarginal row of seven white spots on the outer margin.

"Body brownish; wing-lappets and thorax spotted with tawny-orange; antennæ yellowish, with the base dusky.

"_Hab._--Los Angeles, California."

The species is probably only a local race of the insect known to naturalists as _M. polymnia_, Linnæus, as Reakirt himself admits. The figure in the plate is from one of Reakirt's paratypes.

Genus CERATINIA, Fabricius

_Butterfly._--Butterflies of medium size, very closely related in structure to the butterflies of the genus _Mechanitis_. The peculiarity of this genus, by which it may be distinguished from others belonging to this subfamily, is the fact that the _lower_ discocellular vein in the hind wing of the male sex is strongly in angled, while in the genus _Mechanitis_ it is the _middle_ discocellular vein of the hind wing which is bent inwardly.

_Early Stages._--Unknown for the most part.

There are at least fifty species belonging to this genus found in the tropical regions of America; only one is said to occur occasionally within the limits of the region covered by this volume.

(1) =Ceratinia lycaste=, Fabricius, Plate VIII, Fig. 3, ♂ (Lycaste).

_Butterfly._--The butterfly is rather small, wings semi-transparent, especially at the apex of the fore wings. The ground-color is pale reddish-orange, with the border black. There are a few irregular black spots on the discal area of the fore wings, and a row of minute white spots on the outer border. There is a black band on the middle of the hind wings, curved to correspond somewhat with the outline of the outer border. The markings on the under side are paler. The variety _negreta_, which is represented in the plate, has a small black spot at the end of the cell of the hind wings, replacing the black band in the form common upon the Isthmus of Panama.

_Early Stages._--Unknown.

Reakirt says that this butterfly occurs about Los Angeles, in California, and the statement has been repeated by numerous authors, who have apparently based their assertions upon Reakirt's report. I have no personal knowledge of the occurrence of the species within our borders. It is very abundant, however, in the warmer parts of Mexico and Central America, and it may possibly occur as a straggler within the United States.

Genus DIRCENNA, Doubleday

_Butterfly._--Medium-sized butterflies, for the most part with quite transparent wings. The most characteristic features of this genus, separating it from its near allies, are the thread-like front feet of the females, furnished with four-jointed tarsi (Fig. 83), the very hairy palpi, and the wide cell of the hind wing, abruptly terminating about the middle of the wing. Furthermore, in the male sex the hind wing is strongly bowed out about the middle of the costal margin, and the costal vein tends to coalesce with the subcostal about the middle.

_Early Stages._--Very little is as yet known about the early stages of these insects, and what has been said of the characteristics of the caterpillars and chrysalids of the subfamily of the Ithomiinæ must suffice us here.

This genus numbers a large array of species which are found in the hottest parts of the tropics of the New World. They fairly swarm in wooded paths amid the jungle of the Amazonian region, and no collection, however small, is ever received from those parts without containing specimens belonging to the group.

(1) =Dircenna klugii=, Hübner, Plate VIII, Fig. 1, ♂ (Klug's Dircenna).

_Butterfly._--Fore wings transparent gray, broken by clear, transparent, colorless spots at the apex, on the outer borders, and on the middle of the wing. The inner margin of the fore wing is black. The hind wings are transparent yellowish, with a narrow black outer border marked with small whitish spots. The body is black, with the thorax spotted with white. Expanse, 2.75 inches.

The specimen figured in the plate is from Mexico. Whether the insect has ever been taken within the limits of the United States is uncertain. It is another of the species attributed to our fauna by Reakirt, but which since his day has not been caught in the nets of any of the numerous butterfly-hunters who have searched the region in which he said it occurs. It may, however, be found upon the borders of Mexico, in the hotter parts of which country it is not at all uncommon. The "gentle reader" will kindly look for it when visiting Brownsville, Texas, and southern California, and, when finding it, herald the fact to the entomological world.

* * * * *

SUPERSTITIONS

"If a butterfly alights upon your head, it foretells good news from
a distance. This superstition obtains in Pennsylvania and Maryland.

"The first butterfly seen in the summer brings good luck to him who
catches it. This notion prevails in New York.

"In western Pennsylvania it is believed that if the chrysalids of
butterflies be found suspended mostly on the under sides of rails,
limbs, etc., as it were to protect them from rain, there will soon
be much rain, or, as it is termed, a 'rainy spell'; but, on the
contrary, if they are found on twigs and slender branches, that the
weather will be dry and clear."--FRANK COWAN, _Curious History of
Insects_, p. 229.

SUBFAMILY HELICONIINÆ (THE HELICONIANS)

"Men, like butterflies,
Show not their mealy wings but to the summer."
SHAKESPEARE, _Troilus and Cressida_, act iii, sc iii

Medium or large-sized butterflies, with the fore wings twice as long as they are broad; the hind wings relatively small and rounded upon the outer margin; without tails. The palpi are produced. The antennæ, which are nearly as long as the body, are provided at the tip with a gradually tapering club, thicker and stouter than in the Ithomiinæ, and are clothed with scales on the upper surface. The fore legs are very feebly developed in both sexes. The eggs are cylindrical, twice as high as wide, tapering rather abruptly toward the apex, which is truncated; they are ribbed longitudinally, with strongly developed cross-ridges, giving the egg a somewhat pitted appearance. The caterpillar, when emerging from the egg, has the head somewhat larger than the body; each segment is clothed with hairs, which upon the first moult are replaced by branching spines. The caterpillar, when it reaches maturity, is provided with six branching spines on each segment. The chrysalis is very peculiar in shape, and is strongly angulated and covered with curious projections, which cause it to somewhat resemble a shriveled leaf.

These butterflies are extremely numerous in the tropics of the New World, and are there represented by a number of genera which are rich in species. Most of them are very gaily colored, the prevalent tints being black banded with yellow or crimson, sometimes marked with a brilliant blue luster. They are evidently very strongly protected. Belt, in his "Naturalist in Nicaragua," tells us that birds and other animals observed by him invariably refused to eat these butterflies, although they swarm in the forests; and he vainly endeavored to induce a monkey which was very fond of insects to eat them, the creature revealing by his grimaces that they were extremely distasteful to him. Mr. Wallace believes their immunity from attack is owing to a "strong, pungent, semi-aromatic, or medicinal odor, which seems to pervade all the juices of their system."

Genus HELICONIUS, Latreille

The description of the subfamily applies to the genus sufficiently well to obviate the necessity of a more particular description, as there is but a single species in our fauna.

(1) =Heliconius charitonius=, Linnæus, Plate VIII, Fig. 5, ♂ (The Yellow-barred Heliconian; The Zebra).

This insect is a deep black, the fore wings crossed by three bands of yellow: one near the apex; another running from the middle of the costa to the middle of the outer margin; a third running along the lower edge of the cell, and bending at an obtuse angle from the point where the first median nervule branches toward the outer angle, at its outer extremity followed by a small yellow dot. The hind wings are crossed by a somewhat broad band of yellow running from the inner margin near the base toward the outer angle, which it does not reach, and by a submarginal curved band of paler yellow spots, gradually diminishing in size from the inner margin toward the outer angle. There are also a number of small twinned whitish spots on the margin of the hind wing near the anal angle. The body is black, marked with yellow spots and lines; on the under side both wings are touched with crimson at their base, and the hind wings have some pale pinkish markings near the outer angle.

The caterpillar feeds upon the passion-flower. The chrysalis, which is dark brown, has the power when disturbed of emitting a creaking sound as it wriggles about, a property which is reported to be characteristic of all the insects in the genus. This butterfly is found in the hotter portions of the Gulf States, and is rather abundant in Florida, in the region of the Indian River and on the head waters of the St. Johns. It ranges southward all over the lowlands of Mexico, Central America, and the Antilles.

SUBFAMILY NYMPHALINÆ (THE NYMPHS)

"Entomology extends the limits of being in new directions, so that
I walk in nature with a sense of greater space and freedom. It
suggests, besides, that the universe is not rough-hewn, but perfect
in its details. Nature will bear the closest inspection; she
invites us to lay our eye level with the smallest leaf and take an
insect view of its plane."--THOREAU.

"My butterfly-net and pocket magnifying-glass are rare companions
for a walk in the country."--WILLIAM HAMILTON GIBSON, _Sharp Eyes_,
p. 117.

_Butterfly._--The butterflies of this subfamily are mainly of moderate or large size, though some of the genera contain quite small species. The antennæ are always more or less heavily clothed with scales, and are usually as long as the abdomen, and in a few cases even longer. The club is always well developed; it is usually long, but in some genera is short and stout. The palpi are short and stout, densely clothed with scales and hairs. The thorax is relatively stout, in some genera exceedingly so. The fore wings are relatively broad, the length being to the breadth in most cases in the ratio of 5 to 3, or 3 to 2, though in a few mimetic forms these wings are greatly produced, and narrow, patterning after the outline of the Heliconians and Ithomiids, which they mimic. The fore wings are in most genera produced at the apex, and more or less strongly excavated on the outer margin below the apex. The discoidal cell is usually less than half the length of the wing from base to tip. It is occasionally open, but is more generally closed at its outer extremity by discocellular veins diminishing in thickness from the upper to the lower outer angle of the cell. The costal nervure usually terminates midway between the end of the cell and the tip. The two inner subcostal nervules usually arise before the end of the cell; the outer subcostal nervules invariably arise beyond the end of the cell.

The hind wings are rounded or angulated, with the outer border scalloped or tailed; the inner border always affords a channel for the reception of the abdomen. The costal nervule invariably terminates at the external angle of this wing. The discoidal cell is frequently open, or simply closed by a slender veinlet, which it is not always easy to detect; the anal vein is never lacking.

The fore legs are greatly reduced in the male, less so in the female.

_Egg._--The egg is either somewhat globular, or else barrel-shaped, with the sides marked with net-like elevations, or vertically ribbed (see Figs. 1, 8, 10).

_Caterpillar._--When first emerging from the egg the caterpillar is generally furnished with long hairs rising singly from wart-like elevations which are arranged either in longitudinal rows or in geometric patterns (Fig. 85). As the caterpillars pass their successive moults the hairs are transformed into branching spines or tubercles (see Plate III, Figs. 28-38).

_Chrysalis._--The chrysalis invariably hangs suspended from a button of silk, and is frequently furnished, especially on the dorsal or upper surface, with a number of prominences; the head is usually bifurcate, or cleft (see Plate IV, Figs. 21, 39, etc.).

This is the largest of all the subfamilies of the butterflies, and is widely distributed, including many of the most beautifully colored and most vigorous species which are known. There are twenty-six genera represented in our fauna, containing about one hundred and seventy species.

Genus COLÆNIS, Doubleday

_Butterfly._--Butterflies of moderately large size, the fore wings greatly produced and relatively narrow; the hind wings evenly rounded and relatively small, of bright reddish-brown color, with darker markings. The species are mimics, and in the elongation of their wings reveal the influence of the Heliconians, protected species, which abound in the regions in which the genus attains its greatest development. The median vein in the upper wing is characterized by the presence at the base of a minute, thorn-like, external projection; the second subcostal nervule is emitted beyond the cell; the cell of the hind wing is open.

The life-history of the two species found within our fauna has not as yet been carefully worked out, and aside from a knowledge of the fact that the caterpillars closely resemble in many respects the caterpillars of the two succeeding genera, being provided with branching spines on their bodies, we do not know as yet enough to give any complete account of the early stages of these insects.

(1) =Colænis julia=, Fabricius, Plate VIII, Fig. 6, ♂ (Julia).

The upper side is dark reddish-orange, the borders are black, a black band extends from the costa at the end of the cell to the outer margin on the line of the third median nervule; the costal area on the hind wings is silver-gray; the wings on the under side are pale rusty-red, mottled with a few darker spots, principally on the costa, at the end of the cell, and at the apex of the primaries. There are a few crimson marks at the base of the hind wings, and two light-colored lunules near the inner angle of the hind wings. Expanse of wing, 3.50 inches.

This butterfly, which mimics the genus _Heliconius_ in the outline of the wings, is very common in the tropics of America, and only appears as an occasional visitant in southern Texas.

(2) =Colænis delila=, Fabricius, Plate VIII, Fig. 4, ♂ (Delila).

The Delila Butterfly very closely resembles Julia, and principally differs in being paler in color and without the black band extending from the costa to the outer margin of the primaries. This species has nearly the same form and the same size as the preceding, and, like it, is occasionally found in southern Texas. It is very common in Central America and the West Indies. One of the earliest memories of my childhood relates to a collection of Jamaican butterflies in which were a number of specimens of this butterfly, which I have always much admired.

Genus DIONE, Hübner

(Agraulis, _Boisd.-Lec._)

_Butterfly._--Head large, the antennæ moderately long, with the club flattened; the tip of the abdomen does not extend beyond the inner margin of the hind wings; the cell of the hind wings is open; the primaries are elongated, nearly twice as long as broad, with the exterior margin excavated; the secondaries at the outer margin denticulate. The prevalent color of the upper side of the wings is fulvous, adorned with black spots and lines, the under side of the wings paler brown, in some of the species laved with pink and brilliantly adorned with large silvery spots, as in the genus _Argynnis_.

_Egg._--Conoidal, truncated on top, with fourteen ribs running from the apex to the base, between which are rows of elevated striæ, causing the surface to appear to be covered with quadrangular pits.

_Larva._--The caterpillar is cylindrical in its mature stage, tapering a little from the middle toward the head, which is somewhat smaller than the body. The head and each segment of the body are adorned with branching spines.

_Chrysalis._--The chrysalis is suspended, and has on the dorsal surface of the abdomen a number of small projections. At the point where the abdominal and thoracic segments unite on the dorsal side there is a deep depression, succeeded on the middle of the thorax by a rounded elevation composed of the wing-cases. At the vertex of the chrysalis there is a conical projection; on the ventral side the chrysalis is bowed outwardly.

This genus is confined to the New World, and contains five species. It is closely related to the genus _Coloenis_ on the one hand and to the genus _Argynnis_ on the other. It is distinguished from _Coloenis_ by the more robust structure of the palpi, which closely approximate in form the palpi of the genus _Argynnis_. It is distinguished from the species of the genus _Argynnis_ by the form of the wings and by the open cell of the secondaries. The larva feeds upon the different species of the genus _Passiflora_. I cannot at all agree with those who have recently classed this butterfly with the Heliconians. In spite of certain resemblances in the early stages between the insect we are considering and the early stages of some of the Heliconians, and in spite of the shape of the wings, which are remarkably elongated, there are structural peculiarities enough to compel us to keep this insect in the ranks of the Nymphalinæ, where it has been placed for sixty years by very competent and critical observers. In a popular work like this it manifestly is out of place to enter into a lengthy discussion of a question of this character, but it seems proper to call attention to the fact that in the judgment of the writer the location of this genus in the preceding subfamily does violence to obvious anatomical facts.

(1) =Dione vanillæ=, Linnæus, Plate VIII, Fig. 7, ♂
(The Gulf Fritillary).

_Butterfly._--The upper side is bright fulvous; the veins on the fore wings are black, very heavy near the tip; there are four black spots on the outer border, and three discal spots of the same color; there are three irregular black spots toward the end of the cell, pupiled with white; the hind wings have a black border inclosing rounded spots of the ground-color; between the base and the outer margin there are three or four black spots; the under side of the fore wings is light orange, the markings of the upper side showing through upon the under side; the apex of the front wing is brown, inclosing light silvery spots; the secondaries are brown, with numerous elongated bright silver spots and patches. The female does not differ from the male, except that she is darker and the markings are heavier. Expanse, 2.50-3.25 inches.

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The Butterfly BookChapter IV: Books About North American Butterflies (1)

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