126 THE BUTTERFLIES OF NEW ENGLAND. 



mesonotum, and raised more distinctly on tlie metanotum ; cremaster very sliort and 

 inconspicuous, without liooklets. Body ratlier delicately corrugated with frequent, 

 tremulous, slightly impressed, transverse lines. 



This is one of the most interesting genera in the whole butterfly world, ap- 

 pearing only in aljjine and arctic or subarctic regions : inhospitable regions, 

 where snow lies upon the ground by far the greater portion of the year ; 

 or, as Boisduval remarks, — They are born where nature expires ! Yet the 

 genus is richly endowed with species ; until recently they were best known 

 in the highest latitudes, from the northernmost parts of Europe and all but 

 the southernmost parts of Labrador ; one species has been long known as 

 peculiar to the Alps of central Europe, and another to our own White 

 Mountains ; ours is, however, but distantly related to the alpine species, much 

 more closely to another (O. oeno) common to the arctic regions of the 

 old and new worlds. Of late years the number of recorded species has 

 considerably increased, especially from among the Rocky Mountains of our 

 own country ; one species also occurs in the Himalayas and two others are 

 described from the Andes of Chili, but it is asserted, and not improbably 

 with justice, that the latter belong to a distinct genus. Within the 

 reo'ion embraced in this work, two species occur ; one is confined to the 

 A¥hite Mountains of New Hampshire and the Kocky Mountains of Colorado ; 

 the other belongs to subarctic regions of both worlds but occurs in one 

 locality in New England. 



The Oeneides are sombre lined insects, rather more sparsely scaled but 

 more hairy than their allies, of nearly uniform brownish and ochraceous 

 tints above, sometimes marked with darker ocellate spots in the outer half 

 of the wings, especially upon the under surface ; beneath they are more or 

 less marbled with ashy tints, particularly on the hind wings, which have 

 a not very conspicuous but very broad, darker, irregular band across the 

 middle. The cell of the wings, as well as the wings themselves, are of 

 unusual length ; other structural peculiarities are the very gradual devel- 

 opment of the club of the antennae, which increases almost insensibly in 

 size from about the middle of the antenna, and the hairiness of the legs (to 

 which Westwood calls attention) and of the under surface of the wings, as 

 if for much needed warmth. 



As far as known the species are at most single brooded, and in several 

 cases it is presumed that two years are necessary for the complete cycle. 

 The earliest stages — egg and caterpillar at birth — are known of half a dozen 

 species, but the later stages of the caterpillar and of the pupa of only one or 

 two. Our own White Mountain species is the best known. That of O. 

 bore has been described by Sandberg, who says that the larva is very 

 indolent, and when handled shrinks and remains long motionless, which is 

 equally true of O. semidca. O. bore hibernates twice as caterpillar and 

 changes to chrysalis in May in the winter quarters of the larva, free, in 



