190 LLOYD'S NATURAL HISTORY. 



and only concave, i" at all, at the hinder angle. They differ, 

 however, very much fiom Siderone in colour, being black, some- 

 times glossed with purple, with a great part of the fore -wings 

 from the base filled up with brilliant scarlet, of the same shade as 

 in Catagramma orAgrias, from which the shape of the wings and 

 the different character of the under side will at once distinguish 

 them. This scarlet patch may be confined to part of the basal 

 region, or it may extend over a great part of the wing ; in the 

 latter case, it is sometimes partly interrupted, and there is 

 generally a red blotch on the costa of the hind-wings also. 

 The females have the scarlet portion of the wings replaced with 

 orange-tawny. The under side is dark brown, varied with 

 reddish, but without sharply-defined markings. 



After Siderone, we may consider Agrias, Doubleday and 

 Hewitson, to which belong the most gorgeously coloured of 

 the Nymphalina of the New World. They much resemble 

 gigantic Butterflies of the genera Catagramma or Callithea, 

 but are much more robust, and expand three or four inches ; 

 and they generally inhabit localities where these much smaller 

 Butterflies are also found. The fore-wings are broad, hardly 

 concave, and the hind-wings rounded, and but slightly den- 

 ticulated, and scarcely, if at all, angulated in the middle, or 

 produced at the anal angle. On the hind-wings of the male 

 there is always a conspicuous tuft of yellow hair near the 

 inner margin. 



Some of the species are black, often suffused with rich 

 purple, and the greater part of the fore-wings, except at the 

 tip, is of a brilliant scarlet. The under side of the hind- 

 wings is generally more or less yellow, variously marked with 

 undulating black lines, and often with black spots towards the 

 base on a bluish ground ; but in all the species of the genus 

 there is a sub-marginal row of moderate-sized round black 

 spots, sometimes connected, and generally with large white or 



