The Butterfly Book: A Popular Guide to a Knowledge of the Butterflies of North AmericaHolland, W. J. (William Jacob)
Science
The Butterfly Book: A Popular Guide to a Knowledge of the Butterflies of North America
Holland, W. J. (William Jacob)
Butterflies -- North America
_Butterfly._--Small. The tibiæ and the tarsi of the mesothoracic and
metathoracic legs are more lightly armed with spines than in the genera
_Argynnis_ and _Brenthis_. The palpi are not swollen. They are clothed
with long hairs and have the third joint finely pointed. The antennæ are
about half as long as the costa of the fore wings, and are provided with
a short, heavy, excavated, or spoon-shaped club. The subcostal of the
fore wings is five-branched, the first nervule always arising before the
end of the cell, the second at the end or just beyond it. The cell of
the primaries is closed, of the secondaries open. The markings upon the
wings are altogether different from those in the two preceding genera,
and the spots on the under side of the wings are not silvered, as in the
genus _Brenthis_.
_Egg._--The egg is rounded at the base, subconical, truncated, and
depressed at the upper end and fluted by light raised ridges (see p. 4,
Fig. 8).
_Caterpillar._--The larvæ are cylindrical, armed in the mature form on
each segment with comparatively short spines thickly covered with
diverging hairs, or needle-shaped spines. They are known in some species
to be gregarious in their early stages, and then to separate before
maturity. They feed upon the _Scrophulariaceæ_, upon _Castileja_,
_Diplopappus_, and other plants.
_Chrysalis._--The chrysalis is pendant, rounded at the head, provided
with more or less sharply pointed tubercles on the dorsal surface, and
generally white or some shade of light gray, blotched with brown or
black, and marked with reddish or orange spots on the dorsal side.
[Illustration FIG. 91.--Neuration of the genus _Melitæa_.]
This genus is very large and is distributed widely over all the colder
portions of the north temperate zone. There are many species found in
Europe, in Siberia, in China, and in the northern islands of Japan. On
the upper slopes of the Himalayas it is also represented by a few
species. In North America the genus is well represented, the most of the
species being found upon the mountain-slopes and in the valleys of the
Pacific coast region. Only two species occur in the Eastern States.
(1) =Melitæa phaëton=, Drury, Plate XVI, Fig. 1, ♂; Plate V, Figs. 15,
16, _chrysalis_ (The Baltimore).
_Butterfly_, ♂.--The upper side is black, with a marginal row of red
spots, followed by three rows of pale-yellow spots on the fore wings and
two on the hind wings. Besides these there are some large red spots on
the cells of both wings, a large red spot about the middle of the costa
of the hind wing, and a few scattering yellow spots, forming an
incomplete fourth row on the fore wing and an incomplete third row on
the hind wing. On the under side all the spots of the upper side
reappear, but heavier and more distinct, and on the hind wings there are
two additional rows of yellow spots, and a number of irregular patches
of red and yellow at the base of both wings.
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