476 NATURAL HISTORY OF ARTHROPODS. 



Lyccena may be cited as the type, and by the ' hair-streaks,' of which Thecla may 

 be the example. The first of these has the wings, at least of the male, of various 

 shades of copper or golden brown, marked with black spots and dashes, the genus 

 being mostly confined to the temperate regions of the globe. In this country we have 

 several beautiful species, the rarest of which is, perhaps, C. capreus, which is found 

 only on the rim of the Yosemite Valley, and as yet is extremely rare in collections. 

 It is of a very fiery golden copper, with the black spots usually large. C. rubidus is 

 confined to the valleys, and an allied species, C. sirius, is met witli only in the Rocky 

 Mountains. C. americana (very nearly resembling C. phleas of Europe, and by many 

 persons thought to be identical with it) is abundant through the middle and eastern 

 states ; and perhaps there is no butterfly so common about the middle of the summer 

 and even far into the fall, as this lively and attractive little species. Its caterpillar is 

 well known to entomologists, and feeds upon the common sorrel, Rumex acetosella. 

 "It is of a dull rosy-red color, with a diffused yellowish shade on the sides, most dis- 

 tinct on the middle segments, and a line along the middle of the back of a deeper shade 

 of red. The body is downy with minute yellowish hairs." Some of the larvae, as is 

 usual with all the species of the genus, are of a greenish color. The chrysalis is fas- 

 tened by the end of the abdomen, and is closely girt by the band around the middle 

 to the object to which it is attached. The species has a great tendency to run into 

 curious varieties, at times the black spots being almost obsolete, having only one or 

 two on the fore wing, thus presenting a remarkable golden surface, and from this form 

 through every modification until the wings become almost black with only a trace of 

 copper. These aberrations, one of which has been called C. fasciatus, are by no 

 means common ; and it is worthy of remark that they are chiefly found in the neigh- 

 borhood of Boston, Mass. The writer one year examined over two hundred examples 

 taken around New York city, and found only one that at all wandered from the type, 

 and that had the copper color so faded out as to have become nearly white, thus in no 

 respect resembling the varieties from around Boston. C. epixanthe and C. dorcas are 

 allied species that appear to frequent swamps, the former being common in Maine, and 

 the latter found only in British America and across the continent to Alaska, in which 

 territory it appears to be one of the few Lycsenids known. Many species of this section 

 are found in Europe and Asia, two or three only wandering as far as the northern 

 Himalayas. C. virgaurece and C. thersamon are very bright in their color, and are 

 found generally distributed over Europe, while the ' large copper ' as it was commonly 

 called, C. dfspar, formerly taken in the Cambridgeshire fens, England, is now thought 

 to be extinct, as since the drainage of the fens it seems to have disappeared. 



The beautiful genus Thestor contains but three species, all natives of eastern 

 Europe. They have the wings of a different shape, and the lower side is curiously 

 marked with white, while the copper of the upper surface is less brilliant than in 

 Chrysophanus. 



The ' blues,' belonging to Fabricius' genus Lyccena, are much more numerous in 

 species, there being not less than three hundred and thirty already described. They 

 spread over the whole world, and are generally numerous in individuals, some of them 

 loving the tops of mountains, while others are confined to the valleys and plains. The 

 United States are very rich in species, Edwards's catalogue giving over fifty as inhab- 

 itants of this country. None of them are particularly handsome insects, but they are 

 peculiarly interesting to the entomologist. One species, however, is of great beauty. 

 It has the upper surface of a bright silvery blue, with a rich orange patch on the disc 



