PINE BUTTERFLIES. 767 



secondaries beneath. None of them have so much red; many none at all, and not 

 one shows any trace of the streak near the inner margin. As I have not access to the 

 description of the female by Felder, I forward a series to the editor of Papilio. Should 

 he find them to differ largely from Felder's description, I would suggest the name of 

 " suffusa " for this variety, as it is very constant. 



Description of 7a)Ta.— General color green. Head green, covered with small white 

 points ; mouth-parts dusky ; low down on each side a curved row of four black dots. 



Body clear green, tinged with purplish, and with two lateral yellowish-white 

 stripes. In the dorsal green stripe the purplish tint shows itself as a faint dorsal 

 line, and on the edge of the upper lateral line, leaving clear green between. The 

 upper edge of the upper lateral stripe is clean cut ; the lower edge more diffuse, shading 

 into green, and that color being tinged with purplish along the upper edge of the 

 lower lateral stripe, which is somewhat broader than the upper one and better 

 defined. Anal segment somewhat horny, narrow, and slightly notched at the tip. 

 Venter dusky green. Prolegs black. Abdominal legs dusky green. Length, 1 inch. 



Note. — I have in this paper assumed that all the damage done to the yellow pinea 

 was caused by P. menapia. It is only fair to state that on the edge of the timber, 

 north of Spokane Falls some 4 or 5 miles, I came across a large Bombycid larva 

 which denudes the foliage in a similar manner. From one small pine, not more than 

 12 feet high, I took some thirty specimens and might have taken a hundred. These 

 were in a district where P. menapia was uncommon. We did not have time to make 

 any extended search on other trees, but it may be possible that a portion of the dam- 

 age has been done by these insects. It could not have been common, however, in the 

 affected district, as a close watch on the habit oi menapia did not reveal its presence. 

 I have a number of cocoons of this insect, from which I hope to raise the imago, 

 which is probably allied to the genus Parorgyia. If I succeed, I will put the obser- 

 vations on record. — [SanFransisco, August 9, 1882. 



87. The pine thecla. 



Thecla niphon (Hiibner). 



Order Lepxdoptera ; family Lycenid^. 



Feeding upon the leaves in summer, a flattened oval worm, .75 long when full- 

 grown, of the same deep green color as the leaves, with a light yellow stripe along 

 the middle of its back and a white one on each side, and a brown head ; changing 

 to a short thick grayish pupa with two rows of small blackish spots, and outside of 

 these a row of more conspicuous rust-red ones, which is attached by its tail and by a 

 thread around its middle in form of a loop ; giving out a smallish butterfly which 

 comes abroad in April and the fore part of May; 1 to 1.15 in width across its 

 wings, which are of a dusty rust color and without spots above, paler grayish be- 

 neath, the fore ones with a dislocated black band beyond the middle, edged on its 

 bind side with snow white, and beyond this a row of black crescents, each with a 

 white spot in its concavity, and the hind wings similarly but more complexly varie- 

 gated. (Fitch.) 



Boisduval says : 



This insect lives in Georgia and Florida, on several species of pine, and is very 

 rare and seldom seen in collections. 



It is, however, a common species ia the State of New York, in all 

 our forests where pine trees abound, coming out with the first warm 

 days of spring, before collectors are much abroad in search of insects, 

 and continuing but a short time. (Fitch.) 



