NISONIADES. 259 



the larvae, being fullfed in autumn, do not pupate until the following 

 spring, pupation taking place in a specially constructed hybernating 

 chamber, which Scudder says may be the last larval nest, more perfectly 

 closed. He says that the "larvse of the Nearctic species live in little nests, 

 made, upon the underside of leaves, either by cutting and folding over a 

 fragment of the leaf, and fastening it securely to the other portion by 

 strong distant bands of silk, or by uniting several leaves. Their nests 

 are always scrupulously clean. The whole interior of the nest is lined 

 with silk, and this is always sufficiently large to permit the inhabitant 

 to turn about. The caterpillars of some species eat little irregular 

 holes, or slits, upon either side of their nest, and this becomes a ready 

 mode of discovering the insect." Our Palsearctic species prefer open 

 ground — downs, sides of mountains, etc. — but Scudder says that the 

 Nearctic species prefer overgrown recent clearings, or the thickets 

 and woods, to which the ? s confine themselves, while the $ s 

 are more fond of the neighbouring roads, playing about damp spots, 

 and resting with spread wings, with a tameness apparently quite foreign 

 to their nature in the thickets. In the woods, these insects roam about 

 with a jerky flight, never far from the ground, but with so uncertain a 

 movement, and such frequent change of course, that they are rather 

 hard to capture, and the nature of their haunts among the thickets 

 does not lessen the difficulty, etc. When resting at night, Nisoniades 

 tages, as observed by Trimen, folds its wings roof-like over its back 

 like a Noctuid moth, assimilating wonderfully to a grass-head, on which 

 it usually elects to rest. 



Scarcely represented in the Palsearctic area, the species are much 

 more abundant in the Nearctic. Staudinger and Rebel {Cat., 3rd ed., 

 p. 98) only note tages, L. (Europe), pelias, Leech (China), marloyi, 

 Bdv. (south-eastern Europe), and montanus, Brem. (eastern Asia), but 

 Dyar (Cat. Nth. Amer. Le]3., pp. 59-61) gives 21 species as inhabiting 

 North America. The group appears to be restricted to the north 

 temperate zone, and Scudder suggests that its greater abundance in 

 the Nearctic, than in the Palsearctic, area is to be expected from the 

 occurrence of all the more closely allied genera in central America. In 

 the Old World it extends from 85°N. to 60°N. lat., in the New World 

 from 28°N. to 50°N. lat. ; in both it extends from ocean to ocean, and 

 from the plains to a considerable distance up the mountains ; in the 

 alps of central Europe to 5000 feet, in the White Mountains to 5000 

 feet, in the Rocky Mountains to some 9000 feet. No species seems to 

 be common to the two regions. 



Genus : Nisoniades, Hiibner. 

 Synonymy. — Genus: Nisoniades, Hb., "Verz.," p. 10& (1816); Stphs., 

 "Illus.," iv., p. 404 (1834) ; Humph, and Westd., "Brit. Butts.," p. 123, pi. 

 xxxviii., figs. 9-13 (1841) ; Stephs., "List," 1st ed., p. 21 (1850) ; 2nd ed., p. 20 

 (1856) ; Westd. and Hewits., " Gen. Diurn. Lep.," p. 519 (1852) ; Kirby, " Eur. 

 Butts.," p. 121 (1862) ; Butl., " Cat. Diurn. Lep.," p. 286 (1869) ; Kirby, " Syn. 

 Cat.," p. 628 (1871); Staud. " Cat.," 2nd ed., p. 34 (1871); Curo, "Bull. Soc. 

 Ent. Ital.," vi., p. 216 (1874) ; Kirby, " Eur. Butts.," p. 64(1882) ; Lang, " Butts. 

 Eur.," p. 348 (1884); Kane, "Eur. Butts.," p. 145 (1885); Auriv., " Nord. 

 Fjar.," p. 39(1888); Dale, "Brit. Butts.," p. 226 (1890); Barr., "Lep. Brit. 

 IsL," i., p. 304, pi. xl., figs. 2-2d (1893) ; Buhl, "Pal. Gross. -Schmett.," p. 681 

 (1895); Tutt, "Brit. Butts.," p. 119 (1896). [Papilio-Plebeius-] Urbicola, 

 Linn., " Syst. Nat.," xfch ed., p. 485 (1758) ; xiith ed., p. 795 (1787) ; Fab., " Sys. 

 Ent.," p. 535 (1775) ; Esp., " Schmett. Eur.," pi. xxiii., fig. 3 (1777); p. 306 

 (1779); Fab., "Spec. Ins.," pt. ii., p. 138 (1781); Berg., " Nomenklatur," p. 39, 



