Genus Letnonias 



Butterfly. — The ground-color of the upper side is bright red, 

 clouded with fuscous on the base of the hind wings and bor- 

 dered with the same color. There is a small precostal white 

 spot on the primaries near the apex. The wings are profusely 

 marked with small black spots arranged in transverse series and 

 bands. The fringes are checkered with white. On the under 

 side the wings are pale reddish, mottled with buff on the secon- 

 daries. The black spots and markings of the upper side reappear 

 on the under side and stand out boldly on the lighter ground- 

 color. Expanse, 1,00-1.25 inch. 



Early Stages. — These are beautifully delineated in "The But- 

 terflies of North America," vol. ii. The egg is pale green, turban- 

 shaped, covered with hexagonal reticulations. The caterpillar is 

 rather stout and short, the first segment projecting over the head. 

 The body is somewhat flattened and tapering behind, covered with 

 tufts of hairs projecting outward and downward on all sides, 

 only the two rows of short tufts on the back sending their hairs 

 upward. The color is mouse-gray, striped longitudinally on the 

 back with yellowish-white, the tufts more or less ringed about at 

 their base with circles of the same color. The chrysalis is black- 

 ish-brown, attached at the anal end, held in place by a girdle, but 

 not closely appressed to the surface on which pupation has taken 

 place, and thickly studded with small projecting hairs. The larva 

 lives on the wild plum, 



Nais occurs from Colorado to Mexico east of the Rocky 

 Mountains. 



(6) Lemonias palmeri, Edwards, Plate XX VllI, Fig. 11, <3 

 (Palmer's Metal-mark). 



Butterfly. — Smaller than any of the preceding species. The 

 ground-color of the wings is mouse-gray, spotted with white; on 

 the under side the wings are whitish-gray, laved with pale red 

 at the base of the fore wings. The white spots of the upper side 

 reappear on the under side. Expanse, .75-95 inch. 



Early Stages. — These are, so far as they have been worked 

 out by Edwards, quite similar in many respects to those of the 

 preceding species. 



The range of the species is from Utah southward to Mexico. 



(7) Lemonias zela, Butler, Plate XX VIII, Fig. 17, 6 ; Fig. 18, 

 ? (Zela). 



Butterfly. — The upper side of both sexes is delineated in the 



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