NYMPHAL1DJ5. 



259 



will often see the rich blue and purple of several of these insects 

 among other butterfly habitants of that tropical land. Their scales 

 are very easily loosened and their coloring is so dark and rich that a 

 slight touch on the wings with the lingers will seriously injure a 

 specimen. The native Indian collectors are very careless in their 

 manner of handling the insects they capture, and it is sometimes 

 enouorh to make one's heart ache to see some rare and sforo-eous little 

 creature, that would delight a collector and pay him for a day of hard 

 exertion, ruined by the clumsy tinger-marks of its Indian captor, who 

 simply looked upon this specimen, w^th hundreds of others, as a 

 means of purchasing a keg of rum. 



Our own native species, Eunica moiiima, is a rather plain insect, 

 being bi'own above with slightly purple reflections, while beneath it 

 is brownish gray tinged with pink, having a few faint yellowish spots 

 on the upper wings and faint lines of brown on the lower pair. It is 

 occasional!}' taken in southei-n Florida. 



Eurema letlie. 



Another straggler from tropical America, which is occasionally 

 found north of Mexico in Texas, is Eurema lethe. 



The genus to which it belongs is not a large one, and is mostly 

 confined to Central and South America. This insect is marked in a 

 bold manner, and, although not displaying the iridescent tints of 

 many of the butterflies from the same region, it is rich in coloring. 



