794 THE BUTTERFLIES OF NEW ENGLAND. 



the general make-up of the scenery ; and others are of the same vivid 



green as the plants around which they fly, and which they will not leave. 



Habits and haunts. The various genera, continues Trimen (loo. cit.) , 



present considerable diversity of liabit, some preferring to settle on tlie bare ground, 

 others on low plants, some sporting about bushes, and others delighting in the topmost 

 sprigs of lofty trees. The majority are not strong or rapid in flight, and all settle at 

 very short intervals.* . . . Nearly all, if not the whole, of the butterflies of this family, 

 whgn settled, have a singular habit of rubbing the erect hind wings against each other, 

 so that their upper surfaces press together in a manner resembling that of the blades 

 of a pair of scissors when repeatedly opened and shut. The liind wings are often 

 moved backwards and forwards when half expanded, and in either case the action is 

 so marked that it at once stamps the butterfly as a member of the Lycaenidae. 



This movement of the hind wings has been repeatedly seen and re- 

 marked upon by observers in all parts of the world. Swinton thought he 

 had found the source of the possible sound that may result (none is per- 

 ceptible to human ears) in the structure of the lowest vein of the front 

 wing. He examined callophrys rubi, and states that the vein is bare and 

 "crossed at uniform distances by pronounced striae, which indicate inter- 

 nal diaphragms and constrict into a series of bead-like formations." (Ent. 

 monthl. mag., xiv : 209-10 ; Ins. var., 118). This statement has been 

 accepted without examination by some entomologists, yet it is not true. 

 The vein is never bare of scales except when they have been rubbed off, 

 and the markings seen by Swinton are either the threads of the enclosed 

 tracheae or the lines of pockets for the attachment of the abraded scales. 

 But what one does find (in all Lycaeninae, apparently, certainly in all of 

 our species) is that in the lowest interspace of the front wing, next the 

 inner mai-gin, there is a patch of scales of a different character and setting 

 from any other scales on the under surface. The patch does not reach the 

 base of the wing, nor extend much if any beyond the basal third of the 

 wing, but occupies the whole width of the interspace, and is found in male 

 and female alike, just as the wing movement is shared by both sexes ; the 

 scales arc slenderer than those about them, subfusiform and bluntly 

 pointed, and very often erect or nearly erect ; but they have one other im- 

 portant quality which it seems to me signalizes their use, in that in the 

 midst of scales more lightly attached and easily removed than are those of 

 any other butterflies, it is impossible to remove one of these without 

 breaking the wing ; they are firmly set bristle-scales, and on the oppos- 

 ing part of the hind wings, in the marginal interspace, is a similar patch, 

 not so characteristic, of rounded, pavement like scales. If any noise is 

 produced by the movement of the wings, it must be by the agency of these 

 two opposing fields. 



Harris, writing of our New England species, says they "are found dur- 



*Constant (Catal. Lepid. Var. 23) well re- niodic, so that they easily escape from view, 

 marks tliat their flight is iiMci|u:d and spas- although they never fly far away. 



