504 THE BUTTERFLIES OF NEW ENGLAND. 



study the struct are of butterflies, though they may discuss their classifica- 

 tion, have wrongly taken as real.* The flight of the butterflies is far less 

 vio"orous and has more of the sailing motion than that of the previous 

 groups of Nymphalinae, and they seldom rise to any height. 



Distribution. The tribe is common to both the Old and New Worlds ; 

 it is most richly represented in the temperate parts of the northern hemi- 

 sphere, though a few species occur in the warmer districts of Asia, some 

 in the tropics of the New World, and a few also in the temperate regions 

 of South America. It may be worth while here to quote the following 

 passage from Dr. Hermann Behr (Proc. Calif, acad. sc, ii : 176) in 

 which, however, it should be remarked, he uses the generic term Argyn- 

 nis to include, not only the genus of that name as used in the present 

 work, but also Speyeria, Semnopsyche and Brenthis. 



I maj^ venture the remark tliat the geogi-aphic distribution of the genus Argynnis 

 seems exactly parallel to that of tlie Viola, and not only in occupying the same reg- 

 num, but also having the centre of variety and multiplication of species in the very 

 centre of the reguum Violae. Indeed we And the greatest variety of the genus 

 Argynnis and the genus Viola in the northern, temperate and arctic zones ; from there 

 they diminish in number, and degenerate gradually in osculant genera, like Atella and 

 Cirrochroa in the Old World, Agraulis and Euptoieta in the Ncav. The true Argyn- 

 nides seem nowhere to pass the line, and only far in the southern extremities of 

 America and Australia, where the antarctic representants of Viola begin, begin also a 

 few scattered but normal forms of Argynnis. We know very well that even the typi- 

 cal species of Argynnis are not altogether restricted to the genus Viola, but neverthe- 

 less there exists an intimate connection between this entomological and botanical 

 genus that makes them not only coincide in their geographical distribution, but shows 

 itself even in the osculant genera of the tropics that feed, as much as we could ascer- 

 tain, on Parietales— that is, on relations of the Viola tribes. So Euptoieta claudia and 

 Agraulis vanillae live in the larva state on species of Passiflorae ; and we once raised, 

 in Manila, Cithosia insularis from a caterpillar we had found on a species of Black- 

 wellia. 



Early stages and history. The eggs in this group are sugar-loaf 

 shaped with numerous rather coarse, vertical ribs united by somewhat con- 

 spicuous, frequent, raised cross lines. They are laid singly, often, appar- 

 ently, long after the eclosion of the parents, and the caterpillars hatching 

 therefrom never construct nests, nor live in company, generally conceal- 

 ing themselves by day and feeding by night. They are generally very 

 active when they move, but on the other hand many species are subject to 

 attacks of dormancy or lethargy, often in midsummer, which does not 

 appear to aflfect all individuals alike, some arousing from it at widely diflPer- 

 ent intervals from others. They resemble the caterpillars of the preced- 

 ing group but, in place of spiny thorns, the body is provided with regular 

 series of rather tapering, fleshy prominences, beset with divergent needles; 



* "The males of the large specie.s of the Orthoptera, the Achetidae possess a very sim- 



Argynuidae have, as as a sexual characteris- ilar peculiarity, the <? elytron having thickened 



tic, a dilatation of one or more of the central and serrated rays," etc! Kane, Europ. Butt., 



rays of the fore wings. ... In the order 73. 



