NYIVirilALIXAK: TIIK (rKNCS VANESSA. 433 



ami tlirock'd Imvanl cjicli otlici' at u vt-ry broad angle — not less tliau l;)0^' — and the 

 space between slli^htl}' hollowed; at other times not projecting beyond the front whicli 

 is very .slightly hollowed, l)ut a little swollen laterally and at a side view- broadly 

 arched, scarcely angulated at the tip; when conical, the upper edge is continuous witii 

 the lino of the prothorax and the under, excei)ting for the prominence of tiie Ijase, with 

 that of the lower surface. Mesonotum considerably arched longitudinally, the anterior 

 two-thirds of the middle line carinate; just t)eyond the middle the carina is rai)ittly and 

 regularly elevated to a point of highest projection near the middle of the posterior 

 two-thirds, shapeil much a^ in Kuvanessa. t)ut with sides sloping at an angle varying 

 from r)0°-80'^. Front including all the appendages nearly or (juite straight; a pair of 

 rather small, conical, supralatei'al tubercles in themidiUe of the nieso- and metanotum. 

 Basal wing tubercle pyramidal, triquetral, rather pointed and prominent, the upper 

 angle extending a vei'y brief distance and furnished with a slight accessory tubercle. 

 Scicondary wing tubercle about as sharp and as elevated as the basal one, the space be- 

 tween them angulated nearer the latter; just above the middle of the posterior edge of 

 the wings where they are swollen is a minute tubercle. Longitudinally the al)domen is 

 very broadly and regularly arched, furnished with a dorsal series of minute, conical warts 

 on the anterior (.'dixc of the second to eighth segments, a laterodorsal series of not very 

 large conical tubercles on the middle of the first to eighth segments, sometimes obso- 

 lete on the eighth, largest on the second to fourth segments; a suprastigmatal 

 series of minute warts a little in advance of the middle of the tirst to ninth segments, 

 occasionally obsolete and marked only by spots : an in every respect similar inf ra- 

 stigmatal series on the middle of the fourth to eighth segments. Prcanal button with 

 a coarse, curving, longitudinal pair of ridges, sometimes scarcely elevated, each termi- 

 nating in a forward directed, linear, rounded tubercle much longer than broad. Cre- 

 master on a dorsal aspect tapering considerately to a rounded rather narrow tip, twice 

 as long as the medium breadth, greatly and roundly hollowed; on a side view equal, 

 curved a little, expanded at the tip, particularly upon the under side, the apical field of 

 booklets longitudinally oval, sometimes two or three times as long as broad. Hooklets 

 Mith a long, equal, moderately stout, and slightly curved stem, the apex enlarging a 

 little only, strongly crooked, the bluntly rounded, but slightly produced, downwai'd 

 directed tip distant fi'om the stem by the width of the latter. 



Distribution. This genus is found in almost every inhabited quarter 

 of the globe ; we find one of its members, V. cardui, — the most cosmo- 

 politan of all butterflies, — spread over nearly all the world, its area of 

 dispersion embracing every zone whether of altitude or of latitude as far as 

 the arctic or glacial regions. As already remarked by Doubleday, e^■ery- 

 where it is accompanied by one or more members of the genus. The 

 companion species too, at least in the Old "World, is taken from the oppo- 

 site section of the genus, comprising the species marked like V. atalanta 

 with a brilliant bow upon their upper surface: "cardui has for its com- 

 patriot in Europe and North America Pyrameis atalanta ; further south 

 in the Old World, P. callirhoe [indica] ; in Java, P. dejeanii ; in Austra- 

 lia, P. itea and an undescribed species [P. leachiana], of which I have 

 only seen the fragment in the collection of the British ^Museum ; in New 

 Zealand, P. itea and P. gonerilla ; in the v^andwich Islands [Hawaiian 

 Islands] P. tammeana " (Double. -Hew., Gen. diurn. Lep., 204), and 

 he could have added : in south Africa, P. hippomene. In the New 

 World it is also accompanied by a species from the same section as itself, 

 V. huntera, throughout the whole breadth of North America, and by P. 



