MOTHS AND BUTTERFLIES. 4,TJ 



of the wings, most apparent in the female. It is found only on the Pacific coast, and 

 is there apparently confined to few localities, being one of the few butterflies inhabiting 

 the inhospitable promontory of Lower California. The name of this little beauty is 

 X. sonorensis {=L. regia). Mr. W. G. Wright says: "During the whole trip this 

 delicate butterfly was seen only at one place, a dry mesa, or beach, close by the shore, 

 and shut in by some circling clift'-like hills. There, in a little basin, and almost in the 

 midst of the thundering surf, thei-e were hundreds of them. As one was caught, one 

 or move others were sure to be seen. The ground was in good part covered with 

 impenetrable clumps of cactus, and between and among these grew the j)lant of these 

 little butterflies, Erodium cicutarium, upon which the females were depositing their 

 eggs. I thought it rather singular that this most tender of all butterflies should be 

 breeding at this season (January, 1883), and directly in the breath of the ocean." 

 California and Oregon produce many species of the genus ; on the slopes of the Sierra 

 Nevada and other mountains they are sometimes seen almost in clouds, -L.pheres, L. 

 antiacis, and L. acmoti taking the lead in point of numbers. X. xerxes, formerly 

 found near San Francisco, in which the pupillate spots of the lower side are almost 

 obsolete, appears to be now extinct, as the spot on which it was formerly taken has 

 of late years submitted to drainage and other "modern improvenients." 



The eastern and middle states produce but few species, X. pseudargiolus being the 

 most frequent. This runs into other forms, such as X. neglecta, X. piasus, and X. 

 lucia, the specific value of which has been treated 

 by Mr. W. H. Edwards, and their relations to 

 each other clearly shown. Three or four are 

 found in Florida, passing over into the West 

 Indies, and thence becoming scarcer as we get 

 nearer to the equator. The sjenus is plentiful in 



■* , '^ ^ Fig. 605. — Lycama pseudargiolus. 



Europe, some of the species, such as X. acis, X. 



adonis, and X. cegon being of much beauty. These are exquisitely blue insects, with 

 silver and orange spots arranged around the margins. Some European forms are brown, 

 with orange markings, one of the most curious of these being X. artaxerxes, exclusively 

 an inhabitant of Scotland, and at one time supposed to be only found near Arthur's 

 Seat, Edinburgh. It is said by many to be no more than a local variety of X. agestis ; 

 but Westwood remarks that, " although agestis is very abundant on the Continent, the 

 continental entomologists have never met with a single specimen of artaxerxes, their 

 cabinets being entirely furnished with Scotch specimens." A large number of species, 

 mostly Asiatic, have the hind wings provided with tails, thereby approaching in this 

 one particular the genus Thecla. It is, however, doubtful if this character be of any 

 value, and an eminent writer on the group we are discussing says: "The presence or 

 absence of a tail appears immaterial. Witness X. illissus, tailed; L.faygetus, tail- 

 less. The foi-egoing observations seem to me to prove that the characters in question, 

 although still relied upon by some entomologists as of generic value, can in no way be 

 depended upon, and that if the genus Zyccena is to be divided we must find some 

 better character on which to found our new genera." To this tailed group belono- 

 our very common X. comyntas, the European X. boetiea, and the East Indian X. 

 plato and X. elpis. 



Thecla, as , at jjresent constituted, contains more species than any other known 

 genus of lepidopterous insects, nearly five hundred being included in our catalogues, 

 natives of all parts of the globe, and, contrary to the rule with Lyccena, abounding in 



