258 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



the apically-expanded bristles are lost and our plate of the hairs in the last 

 skin shows the great change that has occurred (compare plates vi. and vii.). 

 He further observes that the larvae are provided with a laterodorsal series 

 of chitinous annuli, placed in the middle of the anterior half of each 

 segment of the body, a laterostigmatal series of similar annuli directly 

 above stigmata, and a ventrostigmatal series, two to a segment, near 

 together, in advance of, and behind, the middle. These are the lenticles, 

 one of which is shown in our plate of " the skin of the larva of N. tages 

 (pi. vi., fig. 1)," and which Chapman says is about O025mm. in diameter, 

 a dark chitinous ring, filled with an apparently structureless mem- 

 brane. This same plate gives also a fairly good idea of the formation 

 of skin-points, as well as of the trumpet-hairs and lenticle. The 

 spiracles are long, oval, delicate, and slightly elevated. The prolegs 

 are short, rapidly tapering, apically broadly ovate, with a complete 

 double row of outward-curving hooklets, which are very small, not 

 very delicate, nor very sharply pointed, but tapering throughout. Our 

 plates vi and vii give a good idea of the various changes that the 

 larval hairs undergo in Nisoniades tages. 



The Nisoniadid pupa (as represented by Nisoniades tages) is very 

 similar to the Hesperiid (as represented by Hesperia malvae), but with 

 more of the Sphingid curve (like that of Sesia stellatarum), the dorsum 

 being hollow from the mesothorax to the 6th abdominal, the venter 

 prominent at the ends of the appendages, but hollow opposite the meta- 

 thorax. Describing the American forms, Scudder says that "the head is 

 somewhat distinct from the thorax, the ocellar field being subglobose, 

 prominent, and the anterior extremity between the eyes independently, 

 and considerably, tumid, accentuating their prominence, the whole 

 broad, scarcely depressed. Thorax tumid, and regular, above, basal 

 wing-tubercles slight, but enough to make the thorax just wider than 

 the eyes, faintly and obliquely carinate in nearly the direction of the 

 antennae. The upper surface of the head and thorax to the summit of 

 either, forms a straight, unbroken line, when viewed laterally, with a 

 considerable slope, at an angle of about 45° with that of the lower 

 surface, as far as the swollen apical half of the wing-cases, where the 

 body is largest. On the abdomen, on the contrary, the upper surface 

 is straight, or scarcely concave from the height of the thorax to the 

 last segment, while the under surface continues the posterior curve of 

 the wing-covers, curving rather strongly upward apically, so that the 

 whole lateral aspect of the chrysalis is that of a broad sigmoid curve. 

 Viewed dorsally, the body is nearly equal from the basal wing-tubercles 

 to the middle of the abdomen, with a scarcely perceptible constriction 

 at the middle of the wings, and a distinct, though slight and broad, 

 enlargement on their apical half ; the apical half of the abdomen 

 tapers rapidly. The thoracic spiracle- guards are moderately large, 

 and semi-lenticular. There is no mandibular tubercle. The 2nd pair 

 of legs extends a little beyond the base of the antennal club, the 3rd 

 pair somewhat beyond the antennal tips, which are finely pointed, 

 and the tongue a little beyond the wings, and almost to the tip of the 

 4th abdominal segment. Spiracles oval, nearly twice as broad as 

 long, not prominent. Cremastral spine pyramidal, truncate, rudely 

 quadrilateral, longitudinally and irregularly sulcated, the hooklets 

 half as long, forming a flaring bunch. 



The lifehistories of the species present the marked peculiarity that 



