Genus CEneis 



Fig. 122.— Neuration of the 

 genus CEneis, enlarged. 



and the hind margins very slightly, if at all, sinuated. The ner- 

 vules of the fore wings are slightly dilated toward the base; the 

 hind wings are elongated, oval, with the 

 outer margins evenly rounded. The col- 

 or of these butterflies is some shade of 

 brown; the outer margin is generally 

 lighter than the base of the wing, and is 

 marked with black spots, sometimes pu- 

 piled with white. The wings are gener- 

 ally marbled and mottled on the under 

 side, and sometimes crossed on the mid- 

 dle of the hind wings by a broad band of 

 darker color. The fringes are brown, 

 checkered with white. 



Egg. — The egg is ovate-spherical, 

 higher than broad, marked on the side 

 from the apex to the base with raised 

 sculptured ridges. These eggs are de- 

 posited, so far as we have been able to learn, on dried grass and 

 the stems of plants in proximity to the growing plants upon 

 which the young caterpillars are destined to feed. 



Caterpillar. — The head of the caterpillar when it emerges 

 from the egg is somewhat larger than the rest of the body, but 

 as it passes successive moults and attains maturity the relative 

 thickness of the body increases, and the adult larva tapers a 

 little from about the middle in either direction. The larva? are 

 pale green or brown, marked by darker stripes upon the back 

 and on the sides, the markings on the sides being in most spe- 

 cies more conspicuous than those on the back. The species all 

 feed on grasses. 



Chrysalis. — The chrysalids are stout, very slightly angulated, 

 and are formed, so far as we know, unattached, under stones 

 and at the roots of grasses. When pupating, the caterpillar often 

 makes for itself a slight depression or cell in the soil, in which a 

 few threads of silk have been deposited, though not enough to 

 justify us in calling the structure a cocoon. 



This genus is composed of butterflies which are mainly arctic 

 in their habitat, or dwell upon the summits of lofty mountains, 

 where the summer is but brief. Only a few species are found 

 at comparatively low elevations, and these in British America, or 



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