480 NATURAL HISTORY OF ARTHROPODS. 



known, of which the half are natives of the New World. The larvae are described 

 as being without spines, slightly pubescent, and finely shagreened. The chrysalis is 

 short and slightly angular. One of the species, L. celtis, is common in Europe, reach- 

 ing also into Asia Minor. All of them appear to be subject to great variation, and it 

 is possible that many now accepted as a species may ultimately prove to be mere local 

 forms. They are brown insects, marked with yellow and white. 



It has been said that the NYMPHALID.E are, in point of numbers, whether of indi- 

 viduals or of species, the most abundant of all diurnal Lepidoptera, containing some 

 of the most familiar forms, and including many which have no special home, but are 

 scattered over the whole surface of the globe. The following are briefly the characters 

 of the group : Larva cylindrical, with fleshy processes or spines ; Chrysalis stout, 

 smooth, and rounded, or angular in outline, always suspended by the tail ; Imago, 

 with the body stout, a large groove on secondaries for the inception of the abdomen, 

 discoidal cellule mostly open, fore legs aborted, hooks of the tarsi generally bifid. 

 About three thousand species are known. 



The sub-family Nymphalinas is the largest of the whole group of diurnal Lepi- 

 doptera, and in its one hundred and thirteen genera comprises some of the most 

 interesting and beautiful of all butterflies. Their chief characters have been defined 

 as follows : " Larva cylindric, spinose the whole length, or only on the head ; Chrysalis 

 variable, but usually spinose ; Imago, w T ith the palpi close, elevated, very scaly, the 

 anterior face of their first two articles nearly as wide or wider than the sides, abdo- 

 minal edge of the secondaries forming a deep groove to receive the abdomen ; Anten- 

 nae with a distinct knob or club, discoidal cellule nearly always open, hooks of the 

 tarsi bifid." They are very rapid flyers, and are among the most active of all lepi- 

 dopterous insects. They are confined to no particular region of the globe, several 

 species having Avandered over the whole of the earth's surface, apparently not 

 affected by climatic conditions, but faring as well among the snows of the Arctic 

 as in the hot blasts of the African deserts, Vanessa antiopa, for example, being 

 recorded from Alaska to Brazil on this continent, and from Lapland to North Africa 

 on the old. 



Ancea (far better known as Paphia) is composed of species in which the fore wings 

 are distinctly hollowed out on the external margin, leaving the apex an extremely 

 sharp angle, and also very frequently with the same excavation along the- inner 

 margin, the hind wings of most species being furnished with a narrow, pointed tail. 

 There are nearly sixty species known, all from Central and South America, two o f 

 them, however, P. andria, long regarded as identical with P. glycerium, and P. mor- 

 risonii, crossing our borders into Florida and Arizona. Mexico is rich in species of 

 this group, one of them, P. cattidryas, looking at first sight very much like the paler 

 forms of Cqllidryas and Gonepteryx. Siderone bears a great resemblance to the last- 

 named genus, but the body is stouter, the antennae longer, and the wings not so deeply 

 excavated. One species, S. ide, has a black ground, with large blotches of the 

 deepest crimson. 



Hypna, has spatulate tails, the wings deeply indented on the margins, and the 

 lower side ornamented with spots of silver. Mr. A. G. Butler has published a mono- 

 graph of the genus, in which he enumerates seven species. These, however, are said 

 by Kirby to be referable to one species, the original type of the genus being H. dy- 

 temnestra. The species are South American. Mynes is represented by only three 

 species, of which ]\L guerinii, from Queensland, has the upper side greenish white, 



