Genus Dione 



Genus DIONE, Hiibner 



(Agraulis, Boisd.-Lec.) 



Butterfly.— Head large, the antennae moderately long, with 

 the club flattened; the tip of the abdomen does not extend 

 beyond the inner margin of the hind wings; the cell of the hind 

 wings is open ; the primaries are elongated, nearly twice as long as 

 broad, with the exterior margin excavated; the secondaries at the 

 outer margin denticulate. The prevalent color of the upper side of 

 the wings is fulvous, adorned with black 

 spots and lines, the under side of the wings 

 paler brown, in some of the species laved 

 with pink and brilliantly adorned with large 

 silvery spots, as in the genus Argynnis. 



Egg. — Conoidal, truncated on top, with 

 fourteen ribs running from the apex to the 

 base, between which are rows of elevated 

 striae, causing the surface to appear to be 

 covered with quadrangular pits. 



Larva. — The caterpillar is cylindrical in 

 its mature stage, tapering a little from the 

 middle toward the head, which is some- 

 what smaller than the body. The head and 



Fig. 87.— Neuration of the eacn segment of the body are adorned with 

 genus Dione. , , . 



branching spines. 



Chrysalis. — The chrysalis is suspended, and has on the dorsal 

 surface of the abdomen a number of small projections. At the 

 point where the abdominal and thoracic segments unite on the 

 dorsal side there is a deep depression, succeeded on the middle 

 of the thorax by a rounded elevation composed of the wing-cases. 

 At the vertex of the chrysalis there is a conical projection; on the 

 ventral side the chrysalis is bowed outwardly. 



This genus is confined to the New World, and contains five 

 species. It is closely related to the genus Colxnis on the one 

 hand and to the genus Argynnis on the other. It is distinguished 

 from Colcenis by the more robust structure of the palpi, which 

 closely approximate in form the palpi of the genus Argynnis. It 

 is distinguished from the species of the genus Argynnis by the 

 form of the wings and by the open cell of the secondaries. The 

 larva feeds upon the different species of the genus Passiflora. 



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