FAMILY BRUSH-FOOTED BUTTERFLIES, 71 



5. Genus Phyciodes. 



PHYCIODES THAROS— THE PEARL CRESCENT. 



(Melitaea tharos, Melitaea marcia, Melitaea j)liaros ) 



Butterfly. — Wings dull orange, heavily marked with blackish 

 brown, the markings heavier in the female and found on the 

 upper surface principally in a broad outer margin, a broad 

 divided bar across the middle of the fore wings, and a mesh of 

 lines, confused in the female, at the base of the wings ; a pre- 

 apical series of dots on the hind wings. On the under surface tlie 

 dark markings of the fore wings are mostly confined to irregular 

 patches at the middle of the costal and at the middle and just 

 before the tip of the inner border; the hind wings are ochraceous 

 with a transverse median tracery of lunulate cinnamon lines, and 

 a large brown cloud on the hind margin ; the preapical dots of 

 the upper surface are repeated. Expanse 1^ inches. 



Caterpillar. — Head shining bronze, marked with wiiite, 

 rounded on summits. Body spined, scarcely tapering on thoracic 

 segments, blackish, dotted above with yellow, with a black dorsal 

 stripe (often wanting), a yellow line in the middle of the sides, 

 and a yellow band just beneath the spiracles; spines mostly 

 yellowish, stout, less than twice as high as broad, arranged 

 much as in Euphydryas. Length | inch. 



Chrysalis. — Grayish white, the effect of brownish creases on a 

 wdiite ground, darker on the abdomen, where there is a dull band 

 below the spiracles ; no band on the wings. Length | inch. 



The eggs, which taper so that the siinimit is only half as 

 broad as the base and are ribbed above on the sides, are 

 light yellow-green and are laid in clusters of from twenty 

 to two hundred on the under side of the leaves of the food- 

 plant, crowded together, sometimes in one layer, at others 

 in several ; they hatch in from five to ten days. The cat- 

 erpillars feed ou asters, but their proper food-plant appears 

 to be only Aster novae angliae. They feed in company, de- 

 vouring at first only the parenchyma of the under surface 

 of the leaf, later in life the entire leaf, spinning no web at 

 any time. The caterpillars of the latest brood become 

 lethargic after the second or third moult and then hiber- 



