Nymphalidae (the Brush-footed Butterflies) 



elevations from which hairs arise. The body of the immature 

 larva generally tapers from before backward (see Plate III, Figs. 7 

 and 11). The mature larva is cylindrical in form, sometimes, as 

 in the Satyrinae, thicker in the middle. Often one or more of the 

 segments are greatly swollen in whole or in part. The larvae are 

 generally ornamented with fleshy projections or branching spines. 



Chrysalids. —The chrysalids are for the most part angular, and 

 often have strongly marked projections. As a rule, they hang with 

 the head downward, having the cremaster, or anal hook, attached 

 to a button of silk woven to the under surface of a limb of a tree, 

 a stone, or some other projecting surface. A few boreal species 

 construct loose coverings of threads of silk at the roots of grasses, 

 and here undergo their transformations. The chrysalids are fre- 

 quently ornamented with golden or silvery spots. 



This is the largest of all the families of butterflies, and it is 

 also the most widely distributed. It is represented by species 

 which have their abode in the cold regions of the far North and 

 upon the lofty summits of mountains, where summer reigns for 

 but a few weeks during the year; and it is enormously developed 

 in equatorial lands, including here some of the most gloriously 

 colored species in the butterfly world. But although these in- 

 sects appear to have attained their most superb development in 

 the tropics, they are more numerous in the temperate regions 

 than other butterflies, and a certain fearlessness, and fondness 

 for the haunts of men, which seems to characterize some of them, 

 has brought them more under the eyes of observers. The lit- 

 erature of poetry and prose which takes account of the life of 

 the butterfly has mainly dealt with forms belonging to this great 

 assemblage of species. 



In the classification of the brush-footed butterflies various 

 subdivisions have been suggested by learned authors, but the 

 species found in the United States and the countries lying north- 

 ward upon the continent may be all included in the following six 

 groups, or subfamilies : 



1. The Euplceince, the Euploeids. 



2. The Ithomiince, the Ithomiids. 



3. The Helkoniince, the Heliconians. 



4. The Nymphalince, the Nymphs. 



5. The Satyrince, the Satyrs. 



6. The Libytheince, the Snout-butterflies. 



78 



