TliK SUBFAMILY LYCAENINAE. 795 



ing tlie greater part of suinmer, in tlie fields and around the edges of 

 woods, flying low and frequently alighting, and oftentimes collected 

 together in little swarms on the flowers of the clover, mint, and other 

 sweet scented plants." Every kind of country, says another writer, fur- 

 nishes its kinds: "AVoods, downs, fields, roadsides and marshes all have 

 their inhabitants belonging to this [sub] family; some are peculiar to 

 mountain districts, and others arc content with the cold sunshine of the 

 Arctic regions" (Lang, Eur. butt., 74). Considering the variety of 

 forms peculiar to the mountains of Switzerland and to those of Colorado, 

 it is noteworthy that not a single species characterizes the White Mountains 

 of New Hampshire, which yet support their own Oeneis and Brenthis. 

 Some of the species exhibit a partiality for particular hours during which 

 they fly abroad. Gosse and Lintner have observed this of some of our 

 species, as will be related in their places. This is perhaps more true in the 

 tropics than with us, where the heat of the sun would seem to be sometimes 

 too great for beast as well as man. "This limited and punctual appear- 

 ance of many insects is," as Distant says, "an interesting and peculiar 

 phase which has scarcely received the notice that might have been 

 expected." But at whatever hour they appear they are the most spritely 

 of all butterflies, vivacious even to audacious pugnacity, as will appear in 

 several accounts to be related. This is the more remarkable and noticea- 

 ble from their diminutive size. 



Donzel has made the curious observation that when paired and flying, 

 it is the male which flies and carries the female, in the Lycaenidi ; while 

 the opposite is the case with the Theclidi. 



Structural features. The butterflies of this subfamily show the last 

 vestiges of that atrophy of the fore legs which is so characteristic a feat- 

 ure of all the higher groups. Here it is confined to the male and consists 

 in a complete or partial loss of the normal terminal appendages ; in the 

 highest of the three groups composing the subfamily, Theclidi, the tarsi are 

 armed at the tip with a pair of spines which are only slightly larger and 

 more curved than the othei'S ; while the inferior surface of the tarsi is 

 furnished with an irregular mass of spines on either side ; in the next 

 group, Lycaenidi, the terminal armatui'e consists of a single, median, 

 tapering claw, scarcely curved ; while beneath the tarsi are supplied with 

 only two or three rows of spines ; in the lowest group, Chrysophanidi, 

 a single median spine, differing from the others only in size, occupies the 

 tip; while the under surface of the tarsi is armed with frequent spines, 

 usually clustered upon the sides. 



The early stages. The eggs are generally very thick-shelled, echi- 

 noid or demi-echinoid in shape, studded with connected elevations or with 

 frequent pits ; but in one of our species, the reticulation is exceedingly 

 faint, so as to give the surface a strikingly different appearance. 



