CALLITHEA. 121 



surface the fore-wings are red at the base, the apical half being 

 brown, with grey markings. The hind-wings are irregularly 

 mottled with grey and brown, and there is a row of bluish spots 

 parallel to the hind-margins, which are yellowish, bordered 

 with black and blue contiguous lines. This Butterfly is found 

 in various parts of South America, as is also the type of the 

 genus, H. thysbe (Doubleday and Hewitson), which is smaller, 

 with the red colouring of the fore-wings extending to the base. 



In the neighbourhood of Catagramma and its allies is to be 

 placed another very beautiful genus of South American Butter- 

 flies, Callithea (Boisd.). The species are generally considerably 

 larger than those of Catagramma, measuring two inches and 

 upwards in expanse, but they may usually be distinguished 

 from them at a glance by the pattern and Colouring of the 

 wings beneath. The type of the genus is C. sapphira (Boisd.), 

 in which the male is of the richest blue, with a broad velvety- 

 black band running from the middle of the fore-wings to the 

 inner-margin of the hind- wings ; the under side is bluish-green, 

 with the inner-margin of the fore-wings black, and the hind- 

 wings orange at the base, and with three rows of black spots 

 parallel to the hind-margin. The female is black, with the base 

 of the wings blue, the fore-wings with a broad oblique band of 

 pale orange from the middle of the costa to the hinder angle, 

 and the hind-wings with a dull green sub-marginal band on the 

 lower half. Bates found this species abundantly in the dry 

 woods near Santarem, sometimes even entering the town. The 

 larva is armed with branching spines, two on the head being 

 much longer than the rest. 



Other species of the genus are equally beautiful. They may 

 be black, with or without purple at the base, and a marginal 

 or sub-marginal band of blue or green on all the wings. Other 

 species are blue or purple, with the basal half of at least the 



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