50 LEPIDOPTERA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



transverse band and the marginal lunules are more brilliant and 



more rarely powdered with ferruginous brown. 



Labrador. 



Boisd. 



MELITAEA Fab. 



In generic characters nearly similar to Argynnis. Wings 

 usually blackish and fulvous, sub denticulate, spotted like a chess- 

 board. The nacre on the wider side of the secondaries of Argynnis 

 is here replaced by yellow or violet pearly reflections. Discoidal 

 cellule of the secondaries always open. 



1. M. phaeton Fab. Syst. Ent. 481. Figured in Cram. pi. 193. Drury 



I, pi. 21. Herbst, pi. 3. Boisd. et Lee. pi. 47, p. 167. 



Wings obscure black, with a marginal series of fulvous spots, 

 more or less triangular, preceded by two transverse rows of yellow 

 points. The primaries have, besides, two fulvous spots in the dis- 

 coidal cellule, followed outwardly by some yellow dots. 



On the under side, the base of each wing is marked with fulvous 

 spots intermingled with yellow dots. 



Body black ; palpi &wdifeet fulvous ; abdomen spotted with yel- 

 low below, and pointed with yellow on the sides; antennce blackish; 

 club a little ferruginous. 



United States. — Expands two and three-eighths inches. 



Boisd. 



2. M. ismeria Boisd. Boisd. et Lee. pi. 46, p. 168. 



Upper side yellowish fulvous, with a large number of black spots; 

 some placed confusedly towards the base, forming zigzag rays ; 

 others forming two transverse sinuous rays on the primaries and a 

 single one on the secondaries, where it is followed by a row of 

 points of the same color. 



The outer edge of the four wings is black, divided on the 

 primaries by fulvous spots and on the secondaries by a line of 

 crescents, which are yellowish-white. v Besides these, the summit 

 of the primaries is marked by four or five white dots. 



The under side of the primaries has a whitish macular band 

 before the outer edge, preceded by three or four spots of the same 

 color. 



