THE BUTTERFLIES AXD MOTHS 



179 



FIG. 269. The bronze copper 



butterfly (Chrysophanus thoe 



Boisd.), female 



(After Fiske) 





butterflies which flit along the road- 

 sides in spring. Others are blackish 

 or bluish above, often with two or 

 more fine, threadlike tails extending 

 from the hind-wings, and are marked 

 with fine, hairlike streaks on the under- 

 surfacej which has given them the 

 name of ' hair streaks." The larvae 

 are quite different from other cater- 

 pillars, being flat, elliptical in outline 

 (with the head retracted), and quite 

 sluglike in appearance. Very few of them 

 are ever injurious, the worst offender being 

 the cotton-square borer (Urauotcs in ell i- 

 uns), which bores into cotton squares and 

 occasionally attacks beans and cowpeas by 

 eating into the pods. 



The four-footed butterflies (Nymphalidae) 

 include most of our common larger forms, 

 and are so called on account of the great 

 reduction of the fore-legs ; this makes 

 them of no service in walking, and the 

 legs are folded on the breast. The common monarch, or milk- 

 weed, butterfly (Anosia 

 plcxippns}, whose green, 

 black-ringed caterpillars 

 feed upon the foliage of 

 the milkweed, is a good 

 example of the family. 

 The spiny elm caterpil- 

 lar, already described (see 

 p. 63), also belongs here. 

 The dark, reddish-brown 

 butterflies of the hop mer- 

 chant (Polygonia comma] 

 are of interest, for when 

 they fold their ragged- 



FIG. 270. The acadian hair- 

 streak (Thecla acadica Edw.), 

 underside of female 



(Photograph by Fiske) 



FIG. 271. The cotton square-borer (Uranotes 

 mellimis}. (All somewhat enlarged) 



<7, dorsal view of butterfly ; &, butterfly with wings 



closed ; c, larva (side view) ; </, pupa. (After Howard, 



United States Department of Agriculture) 



edged 



wings 



and alight 



