184 . HELICOPIS GNIDUS. 



Caterpillar thickly clothed with soft hairs, the chry- 

 salis suspended by the tail, and having a band round 

 the middle. 



The best known and most common species of this 

 genus is H. Cupido, which is rather smaller than 

 H. Gnidus. The former is commonly named the 

 Golden-spot, and the latter the Silver-spot Butterfly. 

 The wings of H. Gnidus^ in the male, are white on 

 both sides, with a slight tinge of yellow at the base, 

 and the outer margin black. At the hinder extre- 

 mity of the secondary wings there is a row of narrow 

 white marks, which is double at the anal angle ; 

 tails black on both sides, the two longest ones tipped 

 with white. The upper wings beneath have a white 

 line dividing the black border behind the middle ; 

 and the under pair are ornamented with twenty- one 

 silvery spots, three of which at either extremity are 

 elongated and placed on a white ground, while the 

 rest are insulated and on a ferruginous ground ; all 

 of them edged with black. The female is larger 

 than the sex just described, and differs in having a 

 larger fulvous space at the base of the wings, and in 

 having it bounded externally on the under side of 

 the upper pair by a wide black patch ; the greater 

 part of the surface of the hinder wings is black, and 

 the posterior row of white crescents is simple : body 

 white, the thorax yellow; antennas black, ringed 

 with white. 



The caterpillar is white, and clothed with long 

 hairs of the same colour; the head yellow, sur- 

 mounted by a tuft of red hairs. It feeds on the 



