860 THE BUTTERFLIES OF NEW ENGLAND. 



ally part from the chu-ker mcdiodorsal line at aliout such an angle, as 

 Lubbock remarks, as the ribs of a leaf part from the main stem. These 

 oblique stripes almost invariably run down the sides from in front back- 

 ward, fjcnerally cross two or three segments, and may or may not join a 

 stio-matal line below or the dorsal line above. Such markings are found 

 almost exclusively among the Lycaeninae and here are extremely com- 

 mon. 



Some shade of dark greenish brown is a ■Ncry common ground tint for 

 the catei-pillars of butterflies, and these are often longitudinally striped, 

 as is the case with the larger part of the Argynnidi, Vanessidi, etc. 

 Here as before the stripes are more common in the neighborhood of the 

 stigmatal line and the dorsal vessel. But they are more commonly 

 broken by the varying intensity of the colors, and ai'e frequently accom- 

 panied by an edging, which is but the ground tint intensified at their 

 border. A considerably greater variety is also seen here from the more 

 or less definite arrangement of the diflferently colored papillae in trans- 

 verse lines across the body, so that by the combination of these two forms 

 of transverse and longitudinal markings almost any conceivable pattern 

 may arise, and one which may be highly complicated. Thus a bright 

 colored spot marks each segment of the abdomen above in Euvanessa 

 antiopa, giving it a very different aspect from the pepper-and-salt coloration 

 of its near ally, Hamadiyas io of Europe. 



Then there are those caterpillars which, upon a bright green or olive 

 ground, find all their conspicuous markings in dark stripes encircling or 

 almost encircling the body, and generally especially conspicuous upon the 

 upper surfixce. Such is notably the case in the genera Iphiclides, Papilio 

 and Anosia, and less so in Cinclidia and Euphydryas. Or the lighter and 

 darker colors of the body may segregate in a more massive way and 

 exceedingly conspicuous broad bands follow the length of the body, as in 

 some of the Melitaeidi of Europe ; or they may congregate in large dorsal, 

 saddle-like patches, as in all our species of Basilarchia and in several of 

 the Papilioninae, either in tlieir earlier or later stages. Indeed it is in 

 the Papilioninae that we find perhaps upon the whole the most striking 

 and extraordinary freaks of coloring to be found among buttei-flies, the 

 great variety even among the few genera found in North America being 

 only an intimation of what may be found in tropical regions, where 

 the subfamily is so much more fully repi-esented. The eye-like spots 

 of the swollen anterior segments, colored in such an extraordinary and 

 admirable manner, the opalescent and jewelled dots which besprinkle the 

 dorsal surface, the brilliant fleshy appendages which sometimes adorn the 

 sides, the frequent contrasts of such colors as bright orange and velvety 

 black, not to mention the curious diflTerences in the markings between the 

 earlier and later stages, i-eveal the possibilities of natural selection in the 



