STRYMONIDI. 



143 



spots; the white transverse line broken; tailed = Nordmasnia — 

 myrtale:' ', Klug (type), acaciae, Fab. [ilicis, Esp.] [prunoides, Staud.]. 



Our ignorance of the early stages of the greater number of the 

 species belonging to this group is absolute. So far as our material 

 goes in this direction, the groupings suggested above are upheld, 

 although the tabulation is quite tentative, and one suspects that some 

 of the details will require considerable modification with greater 

 knowledge. 



De Niceville strangely observes (Butts. IncL, iii., p. 298) that all the 

 species of " hairstreaks," so far as he knows, are found in the perfect 

 state on trees and bushes, from which they may be disturbed by 

 beating, seldom settling on the ground or on low plants and flowers, also 

 that they have a rapid flight, but seldom fly far, and rest with closed 

 wings on the upperside of a leaf. This is all pretty generally true of 

 the Ruralines, especially those of the Bithynid branch, but is, very 

 strangely, untrue, not only of the Palasarctic, but also of the Nearctic, 

 Strymonid species, which, beyond all things, love flowers, and where 

 alone, in the imaginal stage, the Strymonids can be obtained in 

 numbers. We have seen hundreds of Echcardsia w-album at privet 

 blossom in Chattenden Woods, also of this species and Nordmannia 

 ilicis in Fontainebleau Forest ; privet is the most attractive flower 

 to Strymon pruni in Monk's Wood, Hunts ; whilst the bloom of 

 thyme and certain saxifrages attract swarms of Kluyia spini in the 

 valleys of the alps of Central Europe. Nordmannia acaciae, too, 

 only could be found on flowers in the alpine meadows above 

 Alios, in the Basses-Alpes, or flitting rapidly over the sloe-bushes. 

 We should say that the Strymonids were, before all things, 

 lovers of nectar. That this is also true of the American species 

 appears certain, for Scudder notes liparops as being fond of the 

 flowers of sumac (Rhus), calanus and echcardsii as being found on 

 flowers of Symphoricarpus, Asclepias, Rhus, Castanea pumila, etc. 

 The mode of rubbing the hindwings over the forewings has been 

 already noted (antea, p. 81). Scudder observes that "the flight of 

 liparops is quick and nervous, and that, whilst settling itself after 

 flight, it rubs its hindwings together like its allies. It was to calanus 

 that Gosse was specially alluding when he wrote (Lett. Alabama, 

 p. 37) that, when at rest, they often rub the surfaces of the hindwings 

 upon each other, up and down alternately." Scudder says that, in the 

 observations he has been able to make on edwardsii, when they have 

 rubbed their wings, it appeared as if both hindwings were moved 

 together over the forewings and not alternately, etc. The resting- 

 position of the butterflies generally brings about a close resemblance 

 to something with which the butterfly is quite nearly connected, e.g., the 

 underside of Strymon pruni, with its wings well drawn down, closely resem- 

 bles half -faded privet flowers. The peculiar mode of walking, too, is very 

 interesting — the antennae are generally alternately raised and depressed, 

 the short front pair of legs of the $ moving alternately and constantly, 

 in the usual manner of walking, although often quite failing to reach 

 the ground if the insect be moving on a plane surface, whilst, when at 



* Owing to imperfect material, we made a very hasty and inexact criticism re 

 myrtale (antea, p. 84). It is quite clear that myrtale has no definite Callophryid 

 leanings, and that Staudinger's arrangement is more logical than there suggested. 



