HAIR STREAK. 133 



According to their usual arrangement, we come now to that 

 assemblage of pretty little butterflies, of the genus Theckla, 

 known to collectors as the " Hair-Streaks."* They are so 

 called from the fine hair-like lines streaking the under side 

 of their wings, of which the hindmost pair are further distin- 

 guished by one or two tail-like appendages. The caterpillars 

 of these little butterflies which feed on trees and shrubs 

 never on herbaceous plants might hardly be taken, save by 

 the entomologist, for caterpillars at all, being of an oval de- 

 pressed shape, resembling very nearly that of wood-lice, and 

 are hence called onisciform. 



The prettiest of our Hair-streaks, the "Purple,"f is also the 

 most common, being found, it is said, in almost every wood 

 of oak, whereon its caterpillar, a greyish brown onisciform 

 slugglish creature, is to be sought for in the month of June. 



Contrary to the habit of the Emperor of the woods, the lady 

 of this little lord of the oak has been said alone to wear the 

 purple. She displays it, indeed, far more conspicuously in a 

 broad irregular patch of Tyrian dye, in the centre of her 

 brown bordered upper wings; but those of her spouse, though 

 on first-sight wholly brown, are not without their purple also, 

 when viewed in a proper light. 



In the genus Lyccena, we have, fresh from the mint of 

 nature, that bright coinage of meadow butterflies, y'clept the 



* G. Theckla. t Theckla Quercus. 



