386 ARTICULATES: INSECTS. 



ing both wings. The male has a row of orange-colored 

 spots on the hind wings, next to the border. 



The Genus Danais has the knob of the antennae long 

 and curved. The Archippus Butterfly, D. erippus, Doubl., 

 expands from three and three fourths to four and a half 

 inches ; the wings are tawny orange above, nankin-yellow 

 beneath, veins black, and have a black border, spotted 

 with white. The males have an elevated black spot near 

 the middle of the hind wings. It flies in the latter part 

 of summer. The caterpillar lives upon the silk-weed.* 



The Genus Argynnis has the wings without indenta- 

 tions, and the hind ones are generally ornamented beneath 

 with silvery or pearly spots. The Idalia Butterfly, A. 

 idalia, Godt.,. expands about three and a half inches, and 

 the fore wings are deep tawny-orange, spotted with black, 

 and with a broad black hind border, around which, in the 

 female, there is a row of white spots ; hind wings bluish- 

 black above, with two rows of spots behind, both of which 

 are of cream color in the female ; but in the males the 

 spots of the outer row are deep tawny-orange. The 

 fringes of all the wings are spotted with white; all have 

 a row of pearly-white crescents beneath, and the under 

 surface of the hind wings have each seventeen more 

 white spots. It flies in July and August. 



The Aphrodite Butterfly, A. aphrodite, Fabr., expands 

 two and three fourths to three and a half inches, the 



* When ready to go into the chrysalis state, the caterpillar of this species, 

 and others of its family, spins a tuft of silk on the under surface of a piece of 

 timber, board, branch, or leaf, and, fixing the hooks of its hind feet in the 

 threads, suspends itself, and curves the forward part of the body upward. 

 In a short time the skin is rent on the back, and the chrysalis appears 

 through the fissure. The chrysalis now performs a feat which seems in- 

 credible until it is witnessed ; for it has to release itself entirely from the 

 caterpillar-skin, which has been worked back to its hind extremity, and to 

 fasten itself to the silken tuft by its hooks at the tail. By means of two of 

 the movable rings near the middle of the body, the chrysalis seizes a portion 

 of the empty caterpillar-skin, and, thus supporting itself, withdraws wholly 



