LYCAENINAE: THE GENUS CYANIRIS. 921 



divcririii!; a little, so tliat the body is considerably broader at the latter place ; the 

 basal whiu tubercle scarcely breaks the continuity of the line forwarii. where it is 

 well arched, the front a little appressed; the posterior half of the abdomen has an 

 elliptic curve, forming an arch whose height and breadth at base are equal. Viewed 

 laterally, the thorax is highest in the middle of the posterior half of the mesothorax, 

 scarcely falling posteriorly, in front curving at first a little more rapidly, and then 

 directed about equally downward and forward, in nearly a straight line, to the front 

 of the thorax. Abdomen highest, and very little higher than the thorax, at the third 

 segment, on either side of it for an equal distance, in front to the extremity, very 

 broinlly arched ; beyond this point, posteriorly, curving very rapidly downward, so as to 

 be perpendicular at the junction of the eighth and ninth segments, and below this curved 

 a little forward ; transversely the middle of the thorax has the sides sloped toward 

 each other at an angle of about 80°, scarcely or not at all hollowed in the middle, the 

 sides below and the summit equally and rather broadly rounded ; transversely the ab- 

 domen is regularly rounded, forming a perfect semicircle; the tongue exposed three- 

 flftlis way to tip of antennae, interposed between the inner edges of the legs; basal 

 wing prominence consisting of a very slight, rounded elevation. Body covered witli a 

 delicate, raised, interrupted network of lines, continuous in a transverse direction, 

 not elevated at the intersection ; surface between traversed by exceedingly delicate, 

 impressed lines of varying depth, and furnished here and there with a wart bearing a 

 straight, erect, short, tapering hair. Hooklets of cremaster very short and exceedingly 

 slender, the stem equal and nearly straiglit, the apical lobe bent suddenly over and 

 strongly appressed to the stalk, transversely ovate, broadest apically. 



This is a widely distributed genus, occurring in both hemispheres, from 

 the southern limits of the Arctic regions to Lat. 30° N., and on the Asiatic 

 continent even further south. The highest point it reaches in either hemi- 

 sphere is about 63° N. Lat. In the western world it occurs throughout 

 the United States (excepting in the Florida peninsula and perhaps the 

 immediate borders of the Gulf of Mexico), and beyond almost to the 

 treeless region of the north. It is still a matter of doubt whether we 

 have more than one American species, with the probability that we have 

 not ; but, if not, it is an extremely variable form with a most remarkable 

 history, which will be related under the species ; nothing wholly compar- 

 able with it has been observed in the Old World. 



The butterflies are of a lovely violet hue above, the female paler and 

 having the costal border of both wings, and the outer margin of the fore 

 pair, broadly covered with dark brown ; in our species, a secondary form 

 of the male has the whole upper surface dark brown ; beneath, the butter- 

 flies are pale silvery gray or whitish, with a submarginal series of black- 

 dots, followed inwardly by arrow-shaped spots, often confluent, so as to 

 cloud the whole margin ; besides, the fore wing has a transverse series of 

 oblique, dusky dashes beyond the middle of the outer half, and the hind 

 wings a tortuous extra-mesial series of dusky spots, of varying size, some- 

 times even forming a fuscous cloud ; two dusky dots are found midway 

 between this and the base of the wing. 



The species are at once monogoneutic and digoneutic, according to 

 the latitude, and probably to some degree the season. This has been well 

 made out by Edwards for the American species, and is also claimed for the 



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