SUBFAMILY SATYRIN^E (THE SATYRS) 



" Aught unsavory or unclean 

 Hath my insect never seen; 

 But violets and bilberry bells, 

 Maple-sap and daffodils, 

 Grass with green flag half-mast high, 

 Succory to match the sky, 

 Columbine with horn of honey, 

 Scented fern and agrimony, 

 Clover, catch-fly, adder's-tongue, 

 And brier-roses dwelt among." 



Emerson. 



The butterflies belonging to this subfamily are, for the most 

 part, of medium size, and are generally obscure in color, being of 

 some shade of brown or gray, though a few species within our 

 territory are brightly colored. Gaily colored species belonging 

 to this subfamily are more numerous in the tropics of both hemi- 

 spheres. The wings are very generally ornamented, especially upon 

 the under side, by eye-like spots, dark, pupiled in the center 

 with a point of lighter color, and ringed around with one or 

 more light circles. They are possessed of a weak flight, flitting 

 and dancing about among herbage, and often hiding among the 

 weeds and grasses. Most of them are forest-loving insects, 

 though a few inhabit the cold and bleak summits of mountains 

 and grassy patches near the margins of streams in the far North, 

 while some are found on the treeless prairies of the West. In 

 the warmer regions of the Gulf States a few species are found 

 which have the habit of flitting about the grass of the roadsides 

 and in open spaces about houses. The veins of the fore wings 

 are generally greatly swollen at the base, enabling them thus to 

 be quickly distinguished from all other butterflies of this family. 



The eggs, so far as we have knowledge of them, are subspher- 



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