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
There are numerous species belonging to this genus, all natives of
tropical America. The only species said to be found within the limits of
the United States occurs, if at all, in southern California. It is,
however, probably only found in the lower peninsula of California, which
is Mexican territory. No examples from Upper California are known to the
writer.
(1) =Mechanitis californica=, Reakirt, Plate VIII, Fig. 2, ♂ (The
Californian Long-wing).
The original description given by Reakirt in the "Proceedings of the
Entomological Society of Philadelphia," vol. v, p. 223, is as follows:
"Expanse, 2.45-2.56 inches. Fore wing above, brownish-black; a basal
streak over the median nervure, and two rounded spots near the inner
angle, orange-tawny; of these the outer is the largest, sometimes the
inner is yellow, and sometimes both are nearly obsolete; a spot across
the cell near its termination, much narrower than in _M. isthmia_, and
in one example reduced to a mere dot on the median nervure; a more or
less interrupted belt across the wing from the costa to near the middle
of the outer margin, and an oblong subapical spot, yellow; in the
specimen just mentioned there is an additional yellow spot below the
medio-central veinlet.
"Beneath the same, suffused with orange-tawny at the base and the inner
angle, with a row of eight or nine submarginal white spots along the
outer margin.
"Hind wing above, orange-tawny, with a broad mesial band, entire, and a
narrow outer border, from the middle of the costa to the anal angle,
brownish-black.
"Beneath the same, a yellow spot on the root of the wing; a band runs
along the subcostal nervure from the base to the margin, where it is
somewhat dilated; immediately below its termination, a mark in the form
of an irregular figure 2, usually with the upper part inordinately
enlarged; between this and the base, on the central line of the band
above, three small subtriangular spots; all these markings
blackish-brown; a submarginal row of seven white spots on the outer
margin.
"Body brownish; wing-lappets and thorax spotted with tawny-orange;
antennæ yellowish, with the base dusky.
"_Hab._--Los Angeles, California."
The species is probably only a local race of the insect known to
naturalists as _M. polymnia_, Linnæus, as Reakirt himself admits. The
figure in the plate is from one of Reakirt's paratypes.
Genus CERATINIA, Fabricius
_Butterfly._--Butterflies of medium size, very closely related in
structure to the butterflies of the genus _Mechanitis_. The peculiarity
of this genus, by which it may be distinguished from others belonging to
this subfamily, is the fact that the _lower_ discocellular vein in the
hind wing of the male sex is strongly in angled, while in the genus
_Mechanitis_ it is the _middle_ discocellular vein of the hind wing
which is bent inwardly.
_Early Stages._--Unknown for the most part.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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