CHRYSOPHANUS. By Dr. A. Seitz. 281 



Head relatively small, with flat frons, densely scaled and clothed with bristly hairs, which form 

 tufts behind the base of the antennae. Byes rather widely separated, not very large, naked. Antenna a 

 little over half the length of the costal margin, delicately ringed, rather suddenly enlarged to a strong, 

 elongate, flattened club. Palpi small, pointed, porrect for about the width of the head, densely clothed 

 with bristly hairs. Wings regular, entire, forewing triangular, hindwing obtusely ovate, sometimes nearly 

 circular, occasionally with vestiges of tails at and above the anal angle, rarely with one very short 

 tail. In the forewing the costal ends above the apex of the cell, subcostal with 3 branches; the cross- 

 vein but little prominent; the cell half the length of the wing and about four times as long as broad. The 

 legs somewhat longer than in the previous genera, densely scaled bluish white or j-ellowish white, the 

 coxae and femora sometimes covered with thin soft hairs in the ^^. Thorax and abdomen moderately 

 strong, of normal proportion, in contradistinction to Ciiretis, in which the disproportionately strong thorax is 

 three times as large as the slender abdomen of the ^Jc^. Sometimes the whole upperside of the body 

 clothed with soft golden glossy hairs, the under surface being scaled bluish grey or pale ochre. — Larvae 

 strongly convex, but not' so markedly flattened and onisciform as in most larvae of Theclini; the head 

 small, smooth and rounded; the single segment strongly swollen, above often brightly marked and with a 

 distinct stripe on the sides; upperside with short soft hairs. Thoracical legs strong, prolegs short and 

 clumsy. On low herbage and shrubs. Pupa without projections, similar to the bean-like seed of a legumi- 

 nous plant, quite immobile, rounded everywhere, smooth, usually brownish with darker markings, fast- 

 ened to the stalks of plants. 



The butterflies are lively but not shy insects, which are found on flowers — • especially Umbelli- 

 ferae — , in the North during the summer, in the South all the j^ear round. In contrast to Tliecla they 

 keep near the ground, flying rarel}' higher than 1 or 2 m. They do not easily leave their flight-places, 

 occurring especially on meadows in woods and on hillsides. They frequent localities without any woods just 

 as much as larger open places in wooded districts, and rarely travel a longer distance on the wing; even 

 when flushed they settle again after having traversed a distance of but 10 to 20 m. The flight, however, 

 is often very fast. The wings are closed at rest, but nearly always kept open when the butterfly sucks at 

 a flower. Many species have only one brood, others a succession of irregular and overlapping broods all 

 through the season from JIarch to October. 



The true Chrysoplianus are Holarctic. By far the greater number is Palearctic and a considerably 

 smaller portion North American. Some few forms from South America and — curiously enough — New 

 Zealand are better kept generically separate. The genus goes far northward and is most abundantly devel- 

 oped between 40 and 50" n. L., the number of species decreasing so rapidly towards the tropics that only 

 a few forms cross from Palearctic Kashmir into the northern districts of India, which otherwise are so rich in 

 Lepidoptera. The butterflies are generally not rare in their flight-places, but sometimes ver}' local, the 

 only butterfly which is known to be exterminated belonging indeed to this group. Also this genus is here 

 dealt with in the usually accepted extent, although it has been split up by various authors into a whole 

 number of genera, as Heodes, Epidemia, Chalceria, etc. It may conveniently be left to a monographer to 

 decide, if the separation of these genera is justified. 



C. virgaureae L. (76 a). (^ above red-golden, with a narrow black margin, at the proximal side of viryaureae. 

 which there are dark dots on the hindwing: $ cinnabar-red, spotted with black, the hindwing partly dusted 

 with black. Underside leather-yellow, more sparsely spotted with black, before the outer third of the hind- 

 wing pale dots, which are occasionally united in a white chain. The anal area dusted with red. The 

 species occurs from the Atlantic coasts throughout Europe to East- Siberia and from the cost of the North 

 Sea to the Mediterranean, but is absent from Great Britain and Japan. — In Lapland flies a small form, 

 oranula Frr. (76 b), which is otherwise very similar to the name-typical form. — estonica H^iene (76 b), ^Ifg^Hl'^' 

 from the Baltic provinces and eastern Russia, exactly resembles the preceding in size and shape, but has a 

 broader black margin. — virgaureola Stgr. (76 b) is in size like virgaureae, but the upperside of the ^J is as virgaureola. 

 in est07iica; beneath the more reddish disc of the forewing contrasts with the more yellow hindwing and 

 the white discal stripe of the latter is absent or reduced; from northern Central Asia, Dauria, Mongolia, 

 and as similar aberration in the Swiss Alps. — (JJ from the Apennines, in which the upperside is deeper 

 red-golden and the base of the hindwing more densely dusted with dark, are apennina Calb. The $$ on a'pennina. 

 the contrary have the ground-colour paler and are less dusted with dark than many Central European 

 specimens, the underside being hghter. According to Fallou the ^(^ from the Pyrenees are also deeper red. 



— On the other hand the specimens from Mersina and the neighbouring Taurus Mts. have a bright light 

 golden-red upperside in both sexes, the black margin being narrowed in the cJ. This is aureomicans Hetjne. ««:''eo- 



— Specimens with the underside of the hindwing strongly dusted with grey, the upperside of the $ more- 

 over having a brown-grey tint on account of the dark dusting on the golden ground, occur in many alpine 

 districts with the ordinary form, being especially plentiful and well marked in the Alps of Valais; all 



