MELITiEA I. 
MELIT^EA PHAETON, 1-4. 
Melitcea Phaeton , Drury, Exot. Ins. I. pi. 21, 1770. Cramer, Pap. Exot. pi. 183, 1782. Fabricius, Syst. Ent. 
p. 481, 1775. Ent. Syst. III. p. 46, 1793. Bois. and Lee., p. 167, pi. 47, 1833. Harris, Ins. Mass., p. 
288, 1862. 
Phaetontea, Godart, Enc. Meth., IX. p. 288, pi. 38, 1819. 
Male. — Expands 2.2 inches. 
Upper side black, spotted with fulvous and pale yellow; both wings have a 
marginal series of fulvous spots, those of secondaries large and bright colored, of 
primaries dull, often small, in which case they are rather sub-marginal; preceding 
these are two common transverse rows of small yellow spots, the first mostly 
narrow lunules, sometimes partly wanting on primaries, or blended more or less 
with those of the second row, which are rounded; on primaries there is a third 
row, and a fourth which consists of three or four spots only against the extremity 
of the cell; within the arc of cell a geminate fulvous spot, and another half way 
to base; between these are two small round yellow spots, one being next either 
nervure; near base a patch of yellow scales; all the cellular spots vary in dis¬ 
tinctness and are often more or less obsolete. 
Secondaries have a fulvous patch on costal margin, and two within the cell, 
these last often indistinct or wanting; fringes black, yellow in the middle of the 
interspaces. 
Under side black, or brownish-black, the spots repeated and much enlarged ; 
all the marginal spots large, equal on either wing, mostly crenate or serrate, and 
each is surmounted by a yellow lunule, which corresponds with a spot of the first 
yellow row of the upper side ; the fulvous spots in the cell large, each pair con¬ 
fluent, and the two sometimes united by a ligament of same color. Secondaries, 
in addition to the outer row of yellow lunules, have three rows of yellow spots, 
rounded or irregular, and nearly equal; upon the basal area six fulvous patches, 
between which are several small yellow spots on the black ground; a fulvous 
stripe along the abdominal margin next above the angle. 
