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 ( Thecla 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 
