+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | EXPLANATION OF PLATE XXXVII | | | | 1. _Terias gundlachia_, Poey, ♂. | | 2. _Terias proterpia_, Fabricius, ♂. | | 3. _Terias nicippe_, Cramer, ♂. | | 4. _Terias nicippe_, Cramer, ♀. | | 5. _Terias nicippe_, Cramer, var. _flava_, | | Strecker, ♂. | | 6. _Terias nicippe_, Cramer, ♀, | | _under side_. | | 7. _Terias mexicana_, Boisduval, ♂. | | 8. _Terias mexicana_, Boisduval, ♂, | | _under side_. | | 9. _Terias damaris_, Felder, ♂. | | 10. _Terias damaris_, Felder, ♂, | | _under side_. | | 11. _Terias westwoodi_, Boisduval, ♂. | | 12. _Terias elathea_, Cramer, ♂. | | 13. _Terias lisa_, Boisd.-Lec., ♂. | | 14. _Terias delia_, Cramer, ♂. | | 15. _Terias jucunda_, Boisd.-Lec., ♂. | | 16. _Terias jucunda_, Boisd.-Lec., ♂, | | _under side_. | | 17. _Dismorphia melite_, Linnæus, ♂. | | 18. _Dismorphia melite_, Linnæus, ♀. | | | | [Illustration PLATE XXXVII.] | +--------------------------------------------------------------+ RED RAIN "The lepidopterous insects in general, soon after they emerge from the pupa state, and commonly during their first flight, discharge some drops of a red-colored fluid, more or less intense in different species, which, in some instances, where their numbers have been considerable, have produced the appearance of a 'shower of blood,' as this natural phenomenon is sometimes called. "Showers of blood have been recorded by historians and poets as preternatural--have been considered in the light of prodigies, and regarded, where they have happened, as fearful prognostics of impending evil. "There are two passages in Homer, which, however poetical, are applicable to a rain of this kind; and among the prodigies which took place after the death of the great dictator, Ovid particularly mentions a shower of blood: "'Sæpe faces visæ mediis ardere sub astris, Sæpe inter nimbos guttæ cecidere cruentæ.'