214 
MOTHS AND BUTTERFLIES. 
fore wing is bright yellowish orange, the eye-spots being small and 
rather dim. 
Specimens may be occasionally taken, particularly where the 
present species and Satyrus nephele are found in the same locality, 
where there is great variation in the size of the yellowish tan patch 
Satyrus alope. Albino. 
on the fore wings. In fact, there is a gradual gradation between those 
in which the spot is large and well defined to others where there is a 
mere shade of tan color around the two large eye-spots. By some 
authors the following species, where this color is entirely wanting, 
is considered but a well-marked variety of Satyrus alope. As dis¬ 
tinctions between varieties and species are more or less arbitrary, and 
considering the fact that if we could see all the intervening varieties, 
one species would blend insensibly into another, one must conclude 
that a knowledge of the habits of an animal is more useful than an 
ability to separate by these nice distinctions varieties from species. 
As the flight of these insects is weak, they have been obliged to 
resort to a number of tricks to outwit their enemies. In capturing 
these butterflies the collector will very soon become acquainted with 
their modes of escape, which are very interesting, and show no small 
amount of cunning, scarcely to be looked for in an innocent little 
butterfly. Their first plan of escape on being disturbed is to make 
directly for a clump of bushes, into the thickest part of which they 
dive, and there remain until the danger is past. If one is startled 
from the grass at some distance from a safe retreat, and the collector 
overtakes him, he v r ill immediately dodge backward and forward, at 
