256 LEPIDOPTERA. 



spots, gh r ing it a gay and variegated appearance. The butter- 

 fly rises from cold, swampy places the last of June and early 

 in July. Its wings are velvety black, with orange red cres- 

 cents and spots. It expands from two to two and a quarter 

 inches, being our largest species. 



M. Tharos Boisd. and Leconte is a very abundant species in 

 New England. There are two broods, one appearing in June 

 and early in July, and the second one late in August and Sep- 

 tember. It has short, broad wings which are tawny orange 

 above, with black, irregular lines and spots ; it expands from 

 one and three-tenths to one and a half inches. 



Mr. Saimders has sent us a remarkable and undescribed but- 

 terfly, under the name of Melitcea Packardii Saunders, with the 

 following description: "It resembles M. Tharos in size, and 

 expands 1.42 of an inch. The palpi are pale brown above, yel- 

 lowish below ; antennae black above, dotted with white and 

 tipped with red ; below white tipped with red. Head, thorax 

 and abdomen, black above, clothed with brownish hairs ; white 

 underneath ; feet brownish yellow ; wings above brown, with a 

 cupreous tinge, sprinkled with fulvous atoms, with a wide band 

 of dark brown on the outer margin, faintly edged on each side 

 with black. The primaries have a fulvous macular band a short 

 distance from the base, extending nearly across the wings, and 

 a patch of the same hue a little beyond and towards the front 

 margin. Beyond the middle is a wide band of the same, 

 divided by the veins into a series of seven spots ; the upper one 

 is very small, a mere dot with a whitish hue ; the second is much 

 larger ; the third and fourth are nearly uniform in size, larger 

 and more elongated than the second ; the fifth and sixth are the 

 largest and wider and longer than any of the upper ones ; the 

 seventh is nearly of the same width as the sixth, but not more 

 than half the length ; the fringe is dotted with white, especially 

 about the tip. 



"On the secondaries a wide fulvous patch covers the inner 

 part of the wing, extending from near the base to near the 

 middle of the wing, and bounded towards the inner margin by 

 a brown edging ; within this patch are three rounded blackish 

 spots, one most distinct about the middle, the others near the 

 inner margin and partly lost in the brown edging of the wing 



