HAIR STREAK. 133 



According to their usual arrangement, we come now to that 

 assemblage of pretty little butterflies, of the genus Tkeckla, 

 known to collectors as the " Hair- Streaks."* They are so called 

 from the fine hair -like lines streaking the under side of their 

 wings, of which the hindmost pair are further distinguished by 

 one or two tail-like appendages. The caterpillars of these 

 little butterflies which feed on trees and shrubs never on 

 herbaceous plants might hardly be taken, save by the ento- 

 mologist, for caterpillars at all, being of an oval depressed 

 shape, resembling very nearly that of wood-lice, and are hence 

 called onisciforrn. 



The prettiest of our Hair-streaks, the " Purple," t is also the 

 most common, being found, it is said, in almost every wood of 

 oak, whereon its caterpillar, a greyish brown onisciform sluggish 

 creature, is to be sought for in the month of June. 



Contrary to the habit of the Emperor of the woods, the 

 lady of this little lord of the oak has been said alone to wear 

 the purple. She displays it, indeed, far more conspicuously 

 in a broad irregular patch of Tyrian dye, in the centre of her 

 brown bordered upper wings ; but those of her spouse, though 

 on first-sight wholly brown, are not without their purple also, 

 when viewed in a proper light. 



In the genus Lycana, we have, fresh from the mint of nature, 



* G. Theckla. t Theckla, Quercus. 



