MOTHS AND BUTTERFLIES. 



475 



Fig. 603.— Thymeleproteus. 



T. 

 T. 



are very well-known insects, P. comma being a very familiar example. Pyrrhopyge 

 (before alluded to) ranges from Mexico to Brazil, and is numerous in species, nearly all 

 of them being of a blackish or greenish brown, with spots and blotches of red, white, 

 and yellow. In this regard they depart very widely from the usual coloring of the 

 hesperians, the fore wings of one species, P. versicolor, 

 being very remarkable in their ornamentation. One 

 species, P. araxes, is found in Arizona. 



Ismene appears to be confined to Africa and the 

 Indian region. About fifty species are described, in 

 many of which the wings are deeply notched, a charac- 

 ter not usual in the family. Telegonus contains some 

 rather large insects of bright purple-blue color, variously 

 marked with white, and often with large portions of the 

 wings transparent. They are nearly all South Ameri- 

 can, 7\ mercatus being a familiar example. Thymele is 

 one of the genera in which the hind wings are tailed, the 

 lower surface being beautifully ornamented with mot- 



tlings of white and greenish, and, in' a few species, adorned with silver spots. 

 proteus, T. lycidas, and T. simplicius, are all found within our borders, while 

 tityrus, with its bright silvery patch on the underside of the secondaries, is one of the 

 most abundant of all North American Diurnse. Its larva is yellowish green, the seg- 

 ments much corrugated, that next to the head (as is the 

 case in all of the family) greatly constricted, the head 

 itself brown, with two orange blotches, giving the ap- 

 peai'ance of eyes. It feeds on the locust tree, Pobinia 

 pseudacacia, the leaves of which it rolls up as a shelter. 

 Another of our very common species is PJudamus bathyl- 

 liis, which is a dull brown coloi', with small semi-pellucid 

 spots. It extends nearly over the whole of this conti- 

 nent north of the Mexican boundary. 



The great family of the Lycjenidje next engages our attention. It comprises a 

 numerous assemblage of small and weak but beautiful creatures, " distinguished by 

 the minute size of the tarsal claws, the fore legs being fit for walking, the hind tibia 

 with only one pair of spurs; the antennae not distinctly hooked at the tip, and the last 

 joint of the palpi small and naked. The anal edge of the hind wings slightly embraces 

 the abdomen, and the discoidal cell is apparently closed by a slender vein. The cater- 

 pillars bear a very strong resemblance to wood-lice, the head being retractile, and the 

 feet very minute. The body is oval and depressed ; the chrysalis short, obtuse at each 

 end, and girt round the middle as well as attached by the tail." There are about forty 

 genera and probably thirteen hundred species. Many of them are of extraordinary 

 beauty, shining like burnished gold, while others bear the most perfect tints of 

 metallic blue, purple, and green. The genera are mostly separated upon the neuration 

 of the wings, the presence or absence of tails to the hind pair, the length and form of 

 the palpi, and the structure of the legs. They are found over the entire globe, though 

 the development of certain genera is far greater in the temperate than in the tropical 

 zones. Few, are large, none, perhaps, extending two and a half inches in expanse. 

 They appear to fall naturally into three groups, familiarly known as the ' coppers,' 

 represented by the great genus Chrysophanus, the 'blues,' of which Cupido or 



Fig. 604. — Eiidamus bathyllus. 



