LYCAENINAE: TIIK (JKNUS KriDKMIA. 983 



Male abdominal appeiulajjos pretty closely resembling those of Chrysophanus, but 

 the alations of the upper organ are bent uearerthe base, appresscd and notcompressed, 

 the interval between them V-shapcd ; the lateral arms are relatively smaller, bent less 

 strongly and less regularly tapering. Clasps -with a small bnllate base, and beyond a 

 very slender, elongate lamina, incurved at tip. 



Egg. ^[uch more rounded above than the beUnv. being higher in proportion to 

 breadth than in Chrysophanus. Cells small and uniform, the walls of nearly uniform 

 height, a little elevated in rounded bosses at the lines of juncture. Micropyle rosette 

 occupying the tloor of a very deeply sunken well with vertical or overhanging walls. 



Caterpillar at birth. Only a dead and dried specimen has been seen, — not enough 

 to distinguish it properly from Chrysophanus. 



This group of smaller Chrysophanidi is much better represented in 

 America than in Europe, and on both continents spreads from ocean to 

 ocean ; it thus occupies a belt of about 15° of latitude, mostly north of 

 40° N. Lat. In Europe there are a couple of species, one of which spreads 

 across Asia as well, while in America we have three, one northern, one 

 eastern and one western, besides a couple more western forms belonging 

 to a distinct section of the genus, in which the basal tarsal joint of the 

 males is not at all enlarged. In New England a single species occurs, 

 which extends to the north until it meets the northern species thought by 

 some to be rightfully considered the same. 



The butterflies are among the smallest of our coppers. The ground 

 color of the upper surface of the front and hind wings is alike both in the 

 maleandin the female (atleastin the American forms), though there is more 

 or less difference in tone, sometimes a decided difference, between the males 

 and the females, the former inclining to brown with purple reflections, the 

 latter to dull or brownish fulvous. The difference is least conspicuous in the 

 species here treated. Beneath, the general coloring is mvich as in Heodes, 

 with in the main the same distribution of dark spots that is found in Chry- 

 sophanus (repeated to a greater or less extent above) , only the extra-medial 

 series on the laind wing is generally reduced nearly to black points or to 

 slender lunules ; the markings here, which are usually very light, show a 

 tendency to form an extra-mesial series of subconnected slender lunules, 

 recalling in one of the extreme western species, their appearance in the 

 species of Tharsalea. The antennal club is rather shorter than usual, and 

 the fore tibiae of the male longer than usual, more than equalling the 

 length of the fore tarsi. 



The insects, so far as known, are single brooded, flying a comparatively 

 brief time in midsummer. They are extremely local, frequent marshy 

 spots, and presumably hibernate in the egg, though their life history is 

 in no way known. Their flight is short and not very vigorous. The eggs 

 arc white, echinoid, strongly pitted, with nearly equal cell walls. The 

 caterpillar is said to resemble that of Heodes and to feed on Polygonum. 



