FAMILY II. LEMONIID^ 



SUBFAMILY ERYCININ^ (THE METAL-MARKS) 



" I wonder what it is that baby dreams. 



Do memories haunt him of some glad place 

 Butterfly-haunted, halcyon with flowers, 

 Where once, before he found this earth of ours, 

 He walked with glory filling his sweet face ? " 



EDGAR FAWCETT. 



Butterfly. Small, the males having four ambulatory feet, 

 the females six, in which respect they resemble the Libytheinae, 

 from which they may readily be distinguished by the small palpi. 

 There is great variety in the shape and neuration of the wings. 

 The genera of this subfamily have the precostal vein on the ex- 

 treme inner margin of the wing; in some genera free at its end, 

 and projecting so as to form a short frenulum, as in many gen- 

 era of the moths. In addition the costal vein sends up a branch 

 at the point from which the precostal is usually emitted. This 

 apparent doubling of the precostal is found in no other group of 

 butterflies, and is a strong diacritical mark by which they may 

 be recognized. They are said to carry their 

 wings expanded when at rest, and frequently 

 alight on the under surface of leaves, in this 

 respect somewhat approaching in their habit 

 the pyralid moths. Many of the species are 

 most gorgeously colored; but those which are 

 found within our region are for the most part 

 not gaily marked. They may be distinguished 

 from the Lycaenidae not only by the peculiar neu- 

 ration and manner of carrying the wings, but by 

 the relatively longer and more slender antennae. 

 Early Stages. Comparatively little is known of these, though 

 in certain respects the larvae and the chrysalis show a relationship 



228 



FIG. 125. Neura- 

 tion of base of hind 

 wing of the genus Le- 

 monias: PC, precostal 

 vein ; PC , second 

 precostal vein. 



