208 THE BUTTERFLIES OF NEW ENGLAND. 



CISSIA DOUBLEDAY. 



Ci.ssia Douhl. , List. Brit. mus. App., 33 ( 1848) . Syst. rev. Am. Butt., 6 (1872). (Not Megisto 

 Megisto Butl., Cat. Sat., 14 (1868) ; SciuUl., Hiibn). 



Type— Pap. Clarissa Cram. 



Yet now. 

 Now, as I stood letting morn bathe me bright. 

 Choosing which butterfly should bear my news, — 

 The white, the brown one, or that tinier blue, — 

 The Margherita, I detested so. 



In she came — " The fine day, the good Spring time!" 

 Browning. — The Ring and the Book. 



Imago. (52 : 3). Head (61 : 11) pretty large, thinly tufted above Avitli a loose mass 

 of hairs ; front moderately full, rather broadly depressed and slightly hollowed above, 

 protuberant but not prominently so in the middle beneath, a little narrower than the 

 eyes, about as high as broad, terminating squarely above at the base of the antennae; 

 lower edge terminating a very little abruptly, somewhat rounded. Vertex scarcely 

 tumid, moderately long, a slight tubercle in the middle of either side, the posterior edge 

 sharply, the anterior scarcely, convex ; upper border of the eye with a strong, rouuded 

 angulation opposite the posterior base of the antennae ; eyes pretty large, moderately 

 full, naked. Antennae inserted at the middle, in a broad, pretty deep pit, disconnecting 

 the front and the vertex, their bases touching each other on one side and the sides of 

 the flanks on the other; a very little longer than the abdomen, composed of forty-two 

 or forty-three joints, increasing a very little and very gradually in size on the apical 

 lialf , rendering it difticult to mark out any definite portion as a club, the last two or 

 three joints diminishing again and terminating in a very abrupt cone; transversely cir- 

 cular, the club scarcely depressed, but slightly flattened beneath and also minutely cari- 

 nate. Palpi slender, rather more than twice the length of the eye, compressed, the 

 apical nearly two-fifths the length of the middle joint; excepting the apical joint, 

 tufted beneath with very long hairs, compacted in a vertical plane. 



Prothoracic lobes somewhat similar to those of Cercyonis, very minute, the upper 

 portion forming an inflated mass, exteriorly curving downward to a considerable 

 degree, and tapering to a dull point, scarcely more than twice as broad as high, and but 

 little higher than long. Patagia scarcely convex, the posterior lobe very broad and 

 short, somewhat pyriform, the tip scarcely falcate, less than twice as long as broad, 

 rapidly and pretty regularly tapering, the extreme tip blunt. 



Fore wings (38: 3; 61: 3, 4) scarcely produced at the apex, the costal and inner 

 margins being of nearly equal length; costal margin pretty strongly arched at the 

 base, beyond regularly but very slightly convex ; outer border regularly though but 

 little convex; inner border straight, almost concave, the two outer angles about 

 equally, and but slightly rounded oft". Costal nervure extraordinarily swollen at the 

 base, for a distance equal to more than twice the width of the cell; first superior sub- 

 costal nervule arising either a little before ( J ) or a little beyond (?) the origin 

 of the first inferior nervule ; second superior nervule arising beyond the tip of the 

 cell; the latter half as long (?) or a little more than half as long (J) as the Aving, 

 and twice (?) or two and a half times {$) as long as broad; median nervure 

 slightly swollen for a very short distance at the base; submedian nervure not 

 swollen. 



Hind wings subtriangular ; costal border a little arched just beyond the base, after- 

 wards very slightly convex; outer border regularly, though but little convex ; inner 

 border considerably convex near the base, beyond slightly so, and beyond the abdomen 

 slightly and roundly excised, the outer lower angle scarcely rounded oft', the upper 

 outer angle a little more rounded. Veinlet closing the cell striking the median be- 

 yond its last divarication, and the subcostal at the termination of the short, basal 



