MOTHS AND BUTTERFLIES. 



481 



with black borders ; the lower marked with black, red, and yellow. It has very much 

 the aspect of certain Pieridse of the genus Delias. 



Nymphalis, or Charaxes, is a genus of about sixty species, in which the wings are 

 triangular in outline, very much produced at the apex of the primaries, with the hind 

 pair each usually provided with two, three, or at times four tails. The nervures, 

 especially of the anterior pair, are very much thickened, as in Prepona and other genera. 

 The thorax is very thiolc and stout, the abdomen ratber small, received into a groove 



Fig. 607. 



-European butterflies; a, Limenitts pojmli ; b, c, Chrysophcmus mrgaurcs; rf, C, phlceas; e, I/ycana 

 adonis ; /, Hesp&na comma; g, Nemeobvus lucina. 



on the margin of the hind wings. The larvse have usually four vertical horns on the 

 head, of which the two intermediate are the longest. The species are all natives of 

 the Old World, and are usually more gaily colored on the lower than on the upper side. 

 N.jason is a fine European species, and perhaps one of the handsomest butterflies 

 included in the European fauna. It is about four inches in expanse, the surface of a 

 rich, silky brown, changing with the light, a band of fulvous around the margin of the 

 wings, with some blue spots near the anal angle of the secondaries. Beneath, the 

 wings are rust-red, with bands and spots of brown, white, and gray. It is found 

 chiefly along the shores of the Mediterranean, and extends to Asia Minor. The larva 

 vol.. II. — 31 



