1822 BUTTERFLIES BEYOND NEW ENGLAND. 



Above : fore witigs uniform rich blackisli brown, with a faint bluish reflection, in the 

 female with a more distinct pale glaucus blue reflection from the inner two-thirds of 

 the lower half. Hind wings the same, the lower half of the wing below the upper 

 limit of the median nervure overlaid with dark blue, with the exception of the mar- 

 ginal markings becoming less distinct and paler in certain reflections, in the female 

 always with more or less of a glaucous tint; the outer margin has a distinct i)lack 

 thread, preceded in many cases by a similar white thread, and this in the median and 

 medio-submedian interspaces by a large roundish brown spot, free of blue scales ; and 

 finally, at the extreme anal angle, a minute orange spot or streak, surrounded by black 

 and preceded by white; tails black, largely white-tipped. 



Beneath, rather uniform pale slate brown, with a slight tint of buff. Fore wings 

 with a straight orange line parallel to the outer margin running from the costal border 

 to the lowest median nervule, striking the latter exactly in the middle; this line is 

 finely edged externally by black and then by white ; midway between this transverse 

 line and the outer margin is a faint, sometimes obsolete, fuscous line in the subcosto- 

 median and median interspaces ; outer limit of the cell faintly marked by dusky scales. 

 Hind wings with the outer limit of the cell marked as in the fore wings, but more dis- 

 tinctly and sometimes enlivened with orange ; the straight orange line of the fore 

 wings here becomes broader and generally darker and exceedingly Irregular ; as before, 

 it is edged exteriorly with black and then with white, and on the lower half of the 

 wing the white edging is again edged with black ; its course may be described by fol- 

 lowing the direction of the white line ; this crosses the upper interspaces as far as the 

 upper median nervule exactly at its middle, as before in a very nearly straight line, 

 occasionally shifted slightly in position at the nervules ; it crosses the upper median 

 interspaces in a straight, oblique course, as if its upper portion had been thrust in- 

 ward nearly half way to the base of the interspace; it crosses each of the next two 

 interspaces in a curved line bent toward the base at somewhat less than a right angle, 

 and the lowest interspace in an oblique line directed inward ; in the interspaces where 

 the line is bent it encloses externally in the bent portion as much orange as lies inter- 

 nally ; there is a marginal series of more or less ocellated spots, often obsolete in the 

 upper half of the wing, but when present consisting of cloudy markings, of which the 

 most distinct is a brownish annulus ; but in the lower half of the wing, where the 

 orange stripe is most variegated, these spots become large and conspicuous and ordi- 

 narily bright colored; they vary greatly, but are usually much variegated with orange, 

 though sometimes not a trace of this exists ; the spot in the lower median interspace is 

 the most conspicuous and largest, and is either a blackish brown lunule in a pale 

 brown setting, followed above by an arcuate black brown streak, or the black may be 

 reduced and intensified and broadly surrounded by bright orange in the place of the 

 pale brown, followed as before by a Ijlack arcuation ; in the medio-submedian inter- 

 space the Ijlack is intensified and powdered with Islue scales, and orange is rarely 

 found excepting in continuation of an oblique streak which crosses the interspace next 

 the inner margin, followed above by a slender thread of black, and this by white, and 

 below at the anal angle by a small, round black spot, edged without and within with 

 white. Expanse of wings, 21-28 mm. 



This exquisite little buttei-fly is one of the many delights of the south. 

 It is found from West Virginia and Kentucky southward, occasionally 

 a little further north, and extends westward to the Great Plains. It 

 i-eaches also beyond our borders, being found in the West Indies, Mexico, 

 Guatemala and even Panama. 



Nothing whatever is certainly known of its history or early stages, 

 but in Florida it flies early in February. Abbot distinguished in 

 his notes between three kinds of "purple haii'-streak" butterflies : a 



