86 LLOYD'S NATURAL HISTORY. 



GENUS POLYGONIA. 



Polygoma, Hiibner, Verz. bek. Schmett, p. 36 (1816). 

 Grapta, Kirby, Faun. Bor. Amer., iv., p. 292 (1837); Doubl., 



Gen. Diurn. Lepid., i., p. 195 (1848) ; Stainton, Man. 



Brit. Butterflies and Moths, i. ? p. 40 (1857); Schatz, Exot. 



Schmett., ii., p. 124 (1887). 



Type, Polygoma c.-album (L.). 



Antennae with the club oval, gradually formed, truncated 

 at the end; palpi thickly scaled above, less so on the back 

 and sides, and the scales small and conical, interspersed only 

 with a few hairs ; eyes hairy. Wings with the hind margins 

 much dentated, the fore-wings deeply concave below the tip, 

 and the inner margin concave ; hind-wings with a short tail in 

 the middle of the hind margin, and the inner margin grooved 

 to receive the abdomen. A white letter-like mark on the 

 under side of the hind-wings. 



This genus is peculiar to the Palaearctic and Nearctic Regions. 

 In the Old World it does not extend to the Himalayas, though 

 one of the Chinese species, P. c.-aureum (Linn.), has been, 

 rightly or wrongly, reputed to occur as far south as Penang. 

 There are only two recognised European species, one, P. 

 c.-album (Linn.), generally distributed, while the other, P. egea 

 (Cramer), a lighter-coloured species, with a triangular, instead 

 of a semicircular, white mark on the hind- wings beneath, 

 belongs to the Mediterranean Sub-region, being found in South 

 Europe, Asia Minor, and Syria. Polygonia, however, is one of 

 the very few genera of Butterflies that are better represented in 

 the Nearctic than in the Palaearctic Region ; and, in addition to 

 species allied to ours, several very large forms, measuring 

 nearly three inches across the wings, are found in the 

 United States ; and one species extends as far south as 

 Mexico. 



