Genus Dircenna 



Early Stages. — Unknown. 



Reakirt says that this butterfly occurs about Los Angeles, in 

 California, and the statement has been repeated by numerous 

 authors, who have apparently based their assertions upon Reakirt's 

 report. I have no personal knowledge of the occurrence of the 

 species within our borders. It is very abundant, however, in the 

 warmer parts of Mexico and Central America, and it may possibly 

 occur as a straggler within the United States. 



Genus DIRCENNA, Doubleday 



57^//^r/_^y.— Medium-sized butterflies, for the most part with 

 quite transparent wings. The most characteristic features of this 



genus, separating it from its near allies, 

 are the thread-like front feet of the fe- 

 males, furnished with four-jointed tarsi 

 (Fig.83),the very hairy palpi, 

 and the wide cell of the hind 

 wing, abruptly terminat- 

 ing about the middle of the 

 wing. Furthermore, in the 

 male sex the hind wing is 

 strongly bowed out about pio. 83.— 

 the middle of the costal Fore leg of 



, ^, ^ 1 • Dircenna 



margm, and the costal vem klugH ? 

 tends to coalesce with the greatly mag- 

 subcostal about the middle. 



Early Stages.— Very little is as yet 

 known about the early stages of these 

 insects, and what has been said of the 

 characteristics of the caterpillars and 

 chrysalids of the subfamily of the Ithomiinse must suffice us here. 

 This genus numbers a large array of species which are found in 

 the hottest parts of the tropics of the New World. They fairly 

 swarm in wooded paths amid the jungle of the Amazonian region, 

 and no collection, however small, is ever received from those 

 parts without containing specimens belonging to the group. 



(i) Dircenna klugii, Hubner, Plate VIII, Fig. i, 6 (Klug's 

 Dircenna). 



Butterfly.— Vox t wings transparent gray, broken by clear, trans- 



89 



Fig. 82. — Neuiation of the genus 

 Dircenna. 



