434 THE BUTTERFLIES OF NEW F:N(;LAN]). 



oarye on the Pacific slope. Where cardui disappears, hiiiitera too gener- 

 ally fails, and in South America is replaced first by one s])ecies and then by 

 another, "and if these species coexist," says Doid)leday, "one is sure to 

 be rare, for this coexistence is only found on the veiy limits of their 

 respective territories." In the east huntera is replaced by myrinna, in 

 the west by carye ; further south it reappears in terpsichore, which 

 Berg says is identical with huntera. It seems, however, to have escaped 

 observation that, with the exception of the two species common to Europe 

 and America, all the species of the Old World belong to the atalanta 

 section (Pyrameis) and all those of the Xew World to the cardui 

 section (Neopyrameis*) ; so that in discussing the original birthplace of 

 these two now widely spread butterflies we may reasonably lean toward the 

 hypothesis that cardui originated in the Xew, and atalanta in the Old 

 World ; notwithstanding that in America cardui feeds almost entirely on 

 plants introduced from Europe (or are they possibly indigenous to America 

 and thence introduced into Europe?). Of the four North American species 

 of Vanessa, three occur throughout nearly or quite the whole of New Eng- 

 land. Two of these are the species common to Europe and America, 

 and the third ranges from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the limits 

 of the settled parts of Canada to Guatemala. 



Subordinate groups. As above stated, the species of this genus fall 

 very naturally into two groups when the structure and appearance of the 

 imago and the habits of both larva and imago are discussed ; but the same 

 is not true Avhen the structure of the larva and pupa is taken into consid- 

 eration ; showing that these groups should only be considered at most 

 subo'eneric. The insects are of medium size. In the most numerous Old 

 World section (Pyrameis) the Avings are almost black above, the hinder 

 pair broadly bordered with red over most of their outer margin, forming a 

 band which, when the wings are spread, is continued across the middle 

 of the fore wings ; on the latter it starts from the costal margin at one-third 

 the distance from the base and runs towards the outer angle, curvino; 

 slightly downward before reaching it. In the other section (Neopyrameis) , 

 where the ground color is not so deep, this band is indeed present on the fore 

 wings, but paler in tint and so excessively irregular and broken in outline 

 as scarcely to be recognized, and it is accompanied by similarly colored 

 spots in the middle of the cell and of the medio-submedian interspace, 

 which help to obscure its limits ; on the hind Avings the whole apical half 

 or two-thirds of the wings is of the brighter color with a sid)marginal 

 series of dark roundish spots rather distant from the outer border and 

 sometimes pupilled with blue. In both sections the outer border of both 

 wings is more or less enriched by alternate markings of dark and bright 

 spots or lines, and on the fore wings there is in addition a curving row of 



* Name here fir.st proposed. 



