444 



The Moths and Butterflies 



coloring, as grayish blue, lilac-blue, purple-blue, etc., in number and distinct- 

 ness of the small black spots, but only an expert can determine the 

 species. 



Less in number of species and perhaps not quite so familiar are the 

 "coppers" with orange, red-brown or dark-brown wings conspicuously 

 spotted with black. Fig. 4 of PI. X shows the color, markings, and size 

 of a typical "copper," Heodes hypophhcas, "one of the commonest butter- 

 flies in the United States." Most of the other coppers have, however, hardly 

 as bright-red a ground color on the fore wings, some being really somber. 

 Most of them, too, are a little larger than hypnphlxas. A species j)atterned 

 and colored much like hypophlmis, but a half larger, is Chrysophantis Ihoe, 

 found in the Atlantic states and west to the Rocky Mountains. The har- 

 vester, Feniseca tarquinius, small, with bright orange-yellow above spotted 

 with black and mottled gray and brown underneath, is a common species 

 all through the eastern states west to the Mississippi River; its larva feeds 

 on the woolly ])lant-lice like the alder blight, apple-tree aphid, etc. 



The hair-streaks, mostly belonging to the genus Thecla, have short narrow 

 lines or streaks on the under sides of the wings, and are usually provided 

 with one or more delicate little "tails" on the hind wings. They vary in 

 color from a dull brown to a splendid glancing blue or blue-green. They 

 usually have one or more reddish spots at the base of the "tails" and the 

 under sides of the hind wings are often greenish or parti-colored. Thecla 

 lialesiis, the "great purple hair-streak" (PI. V, Fig. 9), is our largest 

 species, and is found in the southern half of the country. Like the blues 

 the hair-streaks are very difficult to classify to species; indeed professional 

 entomologists are not at all satisfied with our present systematic knowledge 

 of the Lyca.'nida>. 



In the extreme southwest are found rather rarely the few species of 

 "metal-marks," Lemonias and Calephelis, black and reddish checkered 

 Lycaenids, which occur in this country. Sometimes, as in L. virgiilli, the 

 wings are spotted with white. The vernacular name is derived from a few 

 small lead-colored or pearly-white spots near the outer margin of the wings. 

 The tiny metal-mark, Calephilis cccniits, expanding only } inch, and with 

 the reddish-brown wings spotted with small steely-blue markings, comes 

 as far north as N'irginia. 



A smaller family than the Hesperida- or Lyca-nidir, but with numerous 

 better-known members, is the Pierida;, the whites, yellows, and orange- 

 tips. Because the larva' of several species feed on cabbage and other 

 cruciferous plants, the unhappy name of cabbage-buttertlics is sometimes 

 applied to them. The common whites and yellows are the most familiar 

 of roadside butterflies, but of the sixty species composing the family in this 

 country, only half a dozen occur in the northeastern states, the south and 



