THE AUBURN THECLA. 277 



The wings on the upper side are dusky brown, with a tint 

 of blue-gray, and, in the males, there is an oval darker 

 spot near the front edge ; the hind wings have two short, 

 thread-like tails, the inner one the longest, and tipped with 

 white ; along the hind margin of these same wings is a row 

 of little pale blue spots, interrupted by a large orange-red 

 crescent enclosing a small black spot, the wings beneath 

 are slate-gray, with two wavy streaks of brown edged on 

 one side with white, and on the hind wings an orange- 

 colored spot near the hind angle, and a larger spot of the 

 same color enclosing a black dot just before the tails. It 

 expands one inch and one tenth. 



The last of these butterflies with two tails to each of the 

 hind wings, does not seem to have been described, unless it 

 is to be referred to the Simaethis of Drury, the Damon of 

 Cramer, or the Smilacis of Boisduval, with the descriptions 

 of which it does not fully agree. I propose, therefore, to call 

 it the Auburn Thecla QThecla Auburniana), from a favorite 

 spot near Cambridge, formerly known by the name of Sweet 

 Auburn, where I have repeatedly taken it before the place 

 was converted to a cemetery. As in the preceding species, 

 the outermost of the tails is very short, and often nothing 

 remains of it but a little tooth on the edge of the wing. It 

 varies considerably in color ; the females are generally deep 

 brown above, but sometimes the wings are rust-colored or 

 tawny in the middle, as they always are in the males ; the 

 oval opaque spot which characterizes the latter sex is ochre- 

 yellow. Upon the under side the wings in both sexes are 

 green, the anterior pair tinged with brown from the middle 

 to the inner edge ; externally, next to the fringe, they are 

 all margined by a narrow wavy white line, bordered inter- 

 nally with brown ; this line on the fore wings does not reach 

 the inner margin ; on the hind wings it consists of six spots 

 arranged in a zigzag manner, and the last spot next to the 

 inner margin is remote from the rest ; besides these there are 

 on the same wings three more white spots bordered with 



