The Moths and Butterflies 443 



the fore wings. Several large species, known as dusty-wings, expanding 

 ij to 1 1 inches, with grayish-brown to blackish-brown wings, belonging to 

 the genus Thanaos, are common. Another large group of nearly indis- 

 tinguishable species is that of the Pamphilas (PL IX). These skippers are 

 mostly tawny and are specially recognizable by a discal black patch in male 

 specimens, which appears like an oblique scorched streak near the center 

 of each fore wing. This patch contains certain peculiar scales which give 

 off scent presumably attractive to the females. Erynnis sassacus (PI. X, 

 Fig. 5), common in the Atlantic states, is a good example of the group. 

 The least skipper, Ancyloxypha numilor (PI. V, Fig. 5), is the smallest 

 commonly seen and differs from other skippers in lacking the recurved 

 hook at the tip of the antennae and in having a slender body. The 

 pale-yellow pilose larva feeds on grasses, especially those that grow in wet 

 places. 



The small butterflies popularly known as blues, coppers, and hair- 

 streaks compose the family of Lycaenidas, or gossamer-winged butterflies, of 

 which a hundred and twenty-five species are recorded from the United States, 

 mostly the western half. The popular names express well the colors and 

 pattern characteristic of the group. They are delicate, light-winged, slender- 

 bodied butterflies rarely expanding more than an inch and a half and either 

 bluish (pale whitish blue to brilliant metallic dark blue) or coppery or reddish 

 or dark brown, often with small blackish spots, or marked with short fine 

 little lines, hair-streaks, on the under side of the wings, and often with delicate 

 little tail-like processes projecting from the hinder margin of the hind wings. 

 The larvae are flattened, short, broad, small, forked, slug-like caterpillars 

 with small retractile heads; those of a few species distinguish themselves 

 from all other butterfly larvae by feeding on other insects, especially aphids. 

 The chrysalid is naked, suspended from the posterior tip and supported by 

 a silken line, or "bridle," about its middle. 



Often to be seen fluttering or clustered about wet spots in the roadway 

 are numbers of delicate little pale-blue butterflies with under side of wings 

 almost white and conspicuously dotted with small black spots and with 

 white-ringed slender antennae; these are "blues," some species of the old 

 genus Lycaena now broken up by modern systematists into a half dozen or 

 more different genera. The spring azure, Cyaniris pseudargiolus (PI. V, 

 Fig. 4), is a wide-spread and common example of the group; with its several 

 varieties it ranges over the whole continent, and it is one of the few "blues" 

 whose young stages are known. The larvae, which curiously secrete honey- 

 dew from little openings on the seventh and eighth abdominal segments, feed 

 on the "buds and flowers of various plants, especially those of dogwood 

 (Cornus), Cimifuga, and Actinomeris." As many as three broods appear 

 in a year. The various species of blues differ slightly in size, in shade of 



