NYMPHALINAE : VANESSA CARDUI. 



471 



half way between the first divarication of tlie median nervure and the outer liordcr, — 

 tlie wiiole forming, with tlie outer bar in the cell, a greatly curved band, with an 

 exceedingly tortuous, exterior margin nearly dividing the brighter parts of the wing into 

 halves; the orange of the ui)i)er median interspace is infringed upon by a downward 

 extension of the black field, in a rounded protuberance, with a very ill-defined edge, 

 which barely crosses the middle median nervure, and limits tlie bright color to a little 

 less than the basal half of the interspace and a small spot in the nuddle of the outer 

 half, next the mldille metllan nervule ; there is also an orange triangle seated upon the 

 upper median nervule near the extremity of its curved portion, leaving, along the outer 

 limits of the cell, a black triangle projecting into the orange field, of equal proportions 

 to itself. Crossing the upper portion of the wing, a little within the middle of the outer 

 two-thirds, is a broad, nearly equal, white band, extending from the costal border to 

 the lowest subcostal nervule, and a little broader than the width of the interspace at 

 that point. A very little more than midway between this and the outer border is a 

 strongly arcuate series of five white spots, the upper two occupying the upper inter- 

 spaces and confluent, together forming a broad lunule, the third and fourth, in the 

 next two interspaces, round, less than half the width of the interspaces, the fifth 

 large, irregular, roundish, crossing nearly or (luite the whole of the snbcosto-medlan 

 interspace. Distant from the outer margin of the wing by less than half an interspace, 

 but retreating a very little more from it above, is a slender, transverse, faint, pale 

 line; seated on the border, in the middle of the interspaces, are small, faint spots of 

 dull, pale orange; fringe black, interrupted with white, below by short lunules, above 

 abruptly. Outer border of hind loings very broadly curved, scarcely more so in the 

 middle half. Color golden orange, the whole costal margin heavily bordered with 

 blackish brown, the inner margin pale greenish griseous, the base, almost to the 

 tip of the cell, blackish fuscous, sprinkled with greenish golden scales; the basal half 

 of the medio-submedian interspace is also blackish brown, and from its lower extrem- 

 ity a rather broad, cui'ving, mesial band uarroAved and sometimes nearly obsolete in 

 crossing the loAver subcostal interspace, passes to the middle of the upper subcostal 

 nervule; midw-ay between this mesial band and the outer border, or, perhaps, nearer 

 the former, is a transverse row of five pretty large, round, black spots in the subcostal, 

 subcosto-mediau, and median interspaces, that in the upper subcostal usually merged 

 in the broad, blackish border of the costal region; they are nearly equal in size, that 

 in the lower subcostal interspace being largest ; the lowest spot, and very seldom the 

 others, have sometimes a few bluish scales in the centre, and that in the upper median 

 interspace approaches the border more closely than the others. Distant from the 

 outer border by less than the width of an interspace, is a series of transverse, diamond 

 shaped stripes, each nearly or quite crossing an interspace; that in the medio-subme- 

 dian interspace is a long, transverse, nearly equal dash, enclosing exteriorly a slender 

 streak of pale blue scales ; midwaj' between this and the margin is another series of 

 similar, but shorter and broader, diamond shaped, transverse spots, seated on the ner- 

 vures and touching the outer border; fringe white, interrupted at the black spots, on 

 the nervure tips, with black. 



Beneath, the portion of the foi-e loings which on the upper surface is occupied 

 by orange is pale, dull pink with a yellowish tinge on the outer half of the wing ; 

 but in the outer portion of the cell it is displaced by white; the black markings 

 which belong to this field are, however, more limited in extent ; the basal third of 

 the costal margin is white, sometimes tinged with yellowish, crossed between the uer- 

 vures by frequent narrow black bars ; the base of the wing below the median nervure 

 is lustrous greenish brown, the inner margin beyond it brownish fuscous, with an 

 olivaceous tinge, and the extreme base of the cell a mixture of white, greenish and 

 yellowish scales with a small, blackish spot in the middle, folloAved by a transverse 

 whitish bar and this by another small black spot in the pink field — all in the basal third 

 of the cell. The black band between the cell and the transverse wiute band depend- 

 ing from the costal border is tilled in the middle, especially above, with a grayish mix- 

 ture of pale brown and white scales, forming a sort of reversed triangle, the apex of 



