The Butterfly Book Part 10

The upper side is dark reddish-orange, the borders are black, a black band extends from the costa at the end of the cell to the outer margin on the line of the third median nervule; the costal area on the hind wings is silver-gray; the wings on the under side are pale rusty-red, mottled with a few darker spots, princ.i.p.ally on the costa, at the end of the cell, and at the apex of the primaries. There are a few crimson marks at the base of the hind wings, and two light-colored lunules near the inner angle of the hind wings. Expanse of wing, 3.50 inches.

This b.u.t.terfly, which mimics the genus _Heliconius_ in the outline of the wings, is very common in the tropics of America, and only appears as an occasional visitant in southern Texas.

(2) =Colaenis delila=, Fabricius, Plate VIII, Fig. 4, ? (Delila).

The Delila b.u.t.terfly very closely resembles Julia, and princ.i.p.ally differs in being paler in color and without the black band extending from the costa to the outer margin of the primaries. This species has nearly the same form and the same size as the preceding, and, like it, is occasionally found in southern Texas. It is very common in Central America and the West Indies. One of the earliest memories of my childhood relates to a collection of Jamaican b.u.t.terflies in which were a number of specimens of this b.u.t.terfly, which I have always much admired.

Genus DIONE, Hubner

(Agraulis, _Boisd.-Lec._)

_b.u.t.terfly._--Head large, the antennae moderately long, with the club flattened; the tip of the abdomen does not extend beyond the inner margin of the hind wings; the cell of the hind wings is open; the primaries are elongated, nearly twice as long as broad, with the exterior margin excavated; the secondaries at the outer margin denticulate. The prevalent color of the upper side of the wings is fulvous, adorned with black spots and lines, the under side of the wings paler brown, in some of the species laved with pink and brilliantly adorned with large silvery spots, as in the genus _Argynnis_.

_Egg._--Conoidal, truncated on top, with fourteen ribs running from the apex to the base, between which are rows of elevated striae, causing the surface to appear to be covered with quadrangular pits.

_Larva._--The caterpillar is cylindrical in its mature stage, tapering a little from the middle toward the head, which is somewhat smaller than the body. The head and each segment of the body are adorned with branching spines.

[Ill.u.s.tration FIG. 87.--Neuration of the genus _Dione_.]

_Chrysalis._--The chrysalis is suspended, and has on the dorsal surface of the abdomen a number of small projections. At the point where the abdominal and thoracic segments unite on the dorsal side there is a deep depression, succeeded on the middle of the thorax by a rounded elevation composed of the wing-cases. At the vertex of the chrysalis there is a conical projection; on the ventral side the chrysalis is bowed outwardly.

This genus is confined to the New World, and contains five species. It is closely related to the genus _Coloenis_ on the one hand and to the genus _Argynnis_ on the other. It is distinguished from _Coloenis_ by the more robust structure of the palpi, which closely approximate in form the palpi of the genus _Argynnis_. It is distinguished from the species of the genus _Argynnis_ by the form of the wings and by the open cell of the secondaries. The larva feeds upon the different species of the genus _Pa.s.siflora_. I cannot at all agree with those who have recently cla.s.sed this b.u.t.terfly with the Heliconians. In spite of certain resemblances in the early stages between the insect we are considering and the early stages of some of the Heliconians, and in spite of the shape of the wings, which are remarkably elongated, there are structural peculiarities enough to compel us to keep this insect in the ranks of the Nymphalinae, where it has been placed for sixty years by very competent and critical observers. In a popular work like this it manifestly is out of place to enter into a lengthy discussion of a question of this character, but it seems proper to call attention to the fact that in the judgment of the writer the location of this genus in the preceding subfamily does violence to obvious anatomical facts.

(1) =Dione vanillae=, Linnaeus, Plate VIII, Fig. 7, ?

(The Gulf Fritillary).

_b.u.t.terfly._--The upper side is bright fulvous; the veins on the fore wings are black, very heavy near the tip; there are four black spots on the outer border, and three discal spots of the same color; there are three irregular black spots toward the end of the cell, pupiled with white; the hind wings have a black border inclosing rounded spots of the ground-color; between the base and the outer margin there are three or four black spots; the under side of the fore wings is light orange, the markings of the upper side showing through upon the under side; the apex of the front wing is brown, inclosing light silvery spots; the secondaries are brown, with numerous elongated bright silver spots and patches. The female does not differ from the male, except that she is darker and the markings are heavier. Expanse, 2.50-3.25 inches.

_Caterpillar._--The caterpillar is cylindrical, with the head somewhat smaller than the body, pale yellowish-brown in color, marked with longitudinal dark-brown bands, of which the two upon the side are deeper in color than the one upon the back, which latter is sometimes almost entirely effaced; the base is slaty-black. There are orange spots about the spiracles. There are six rows of black branching spines upon the body, and two similar spines upon the head, these latter somewhat recurved. The feet and legs are black. The caterpillar feeds upon the various species of pa.s.sion-flower which are found in the Southern States.

_Chrysalis._--The chrysalis is dark brown, marked with a few small pale spots.

This species ranges from the lat.i.tude of southern Virginia southward to Arizona and California. It is abundant also in the Antilles and Mexico.

Genus EUPTOIETA, Doubleday

_b.u.t.terfly._--b.u.t.terflies of medium size, having wings of a yellowish-brown color, marked with black, the under side of the wings devoid of silvery spots such as are found in the genera _Dione_ and _Argynnis_. The palpi have the second joint strongly developed, increasing in thickness from behind forward, and thickly covered with long hair; the third joint is very small and pointed; the antennae are terminated by a conspicuous pear-shaped club. The cell of the fore wing is closed by a very feeble lower discocellular vein, which unites with the median vein at the origin of the second median nervule; the cell of the hind wing is open, though occasionally there are traces of a feebly developed lower discocellular vein on this wing. The outer margin of the fore wing is slightly excavated below the apex; the outer margin of the hind wing is somewhat strongly produced at the end of the third median nervule.

[Ill.u.s.tration FIG. 88.--Neuration of the genus _Euptoieta_.]

_Egg._--Short, subconical, with from thirty to forty vertical ribs, pale green in color.

_Caterpillar._--The caterpillar is cylindrical, with short branching spines arranged in longitudinal rows upon the body, the spines on the first segment being bent forward over the head. The head is somewhat smaller in the mature stage than the body.

_Chrysalis._--The chrysalis is suspended, marked upon its dorsal side with a number of small angular eminences, with the head and the ventral side evenly rounded.

The larva of these insects feeds upon the various species of pa.s.sion-flower. It is also said to feed upon violets. The b.u.t.terflies frequent open fields, and are sometimes exceedingly abundant in worn-out lands in the Southern States.

There are two species of this genus, both of which are found within the United States, and range southwardly over the greater portion of Central and South America.

(1) =Euptoieta claudia=, Cramer, Plate VIII, Fig. 9, ? (The Variegated Fritillary).

_b.u.t.terfly._--The upper side of both wings is dull ferruginous, darker toward the base, crossed by an irregular black median line, which is darker, broader, and more zigzag on the fore wing than on the hind wing.

This line is followed outwardly on both wings by a pair of more or less wavy limbal lines, inclosing between them a series of round blackish spots. The outer margin is black, with the fringes pale fulvous, checkered with black at the end of each nervule. At the end of the cell in the fore wing there are two black lines inclosing paler fulvous spots, and both wings near the base have some curved black lines. On the under side the fore wings are marked somewhat as on the upper side, but paler in color, with a large apical patch of brownish-gray broken by a transverse band of darker brown. The hind wings are dark brown, with the markings of the upper side obscurely repeated; they are mottled with gray and crossed by a broad central band of pale buff.

The species varies very much, according to locality, both in size and in the depth of the markings. Expanse, 1.75-2.75 inches.

_Egg._--The egg is conoidal, relatively taller than the eggs of the genus _Argynnis_, which closely resemble it. There is a depression at the apex, surrounded by a serrated rim, formed by the ends of the vertical ribs, of which there are about twenty, some longer and some shorter, about half of them reaching from the apex to the base. Between these vertical ribs there are a mult.i.tude of smaller cross-ridges.

_Caterpillar._--The caterpillar is cylindrical, reddish-yellow in color, marked with two brown lateral bands and a series of white spots upon the back. There are six rows of short branching spines upon the body, which are black in color; the two uppermost of these spines on the first segment are much elongated and are directed forward. The head is smaller than the body in the mature caterpillar, and is black. On the under side the caterpillar is pale or whitish; the legs are blackish-brown. It feeds upon the pa.s.sion-flower.

_Chrysalis._--The chrysalis is pearly-white, marked with black spots and longitudinal streaks.

This species has been taken as far north as Long Island and Connecticut, though it is a very rare visitant in New England; it is quite common in Virginia and thence southward, and occurs not infrequently in southern Illinois and Indiana, ranging westward and southward over the entire continent to the Isthmus of Panama, and thence extending over the South American continent, wherever favorable conditions occur.

(2) =Euptoieta hegesia=, Cramer, Plate VIII, Fig. 8, ? (The Mexican Fritillary).

The upper side is marked very much as in the preceding species, but all the lines are finer and somewhat more regular, and the basal and discal areas of the hind wings are without dark spots in most specimens. The under side is less mottled and more uniformly dark rusty-brown than in _E. claudia_. Expanse, about 2 inches.

The life-history of this species has not as yet been thoroughly worked out, but there is every reason to believe that the insect in its early stages very closely approaches the Variegated Fritillary. It is a Southern form, and only occasionally is taken in Arizona and southern California. It is common in Central and South America.

LUTHER'S SADDEST EXPERIENCE

"Luther, he was persecuted, Excommunicated, hooted, Disappointed, egged, and booted; Yelled at by minutest boys, Waked up by nocturnal noise, Scratched and torn by fiendish cats, Highwayed by voracious rats.

"Oft upon his locks so h.o.a.ry Water fell from upper story; Oft a turnip or potato Struck upon his back or pate, Oh!

And wherever he betook him, A papal bull was sure to hook him.

"But the saddest of all I am forced to relate: Of a _diet of worms_ He was forced to partake-- Of a diet of worms For the Protestants' sake; Munching crawling caterpillars, Beetles mixed with moths and millers; Instead of b.u.t.ter, on his bread, A sauce of b.u.t.terflies was spread.

Was not this a horrid feast For a Christian and a priest?

"Now, if you do not credit me, Consult D'Aubigne's history.

You'll find what I have told you Most fearfully and sternly true."

_Yale Literary Magazine_, 1852.

+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | | | EXPLANATION OF PLATE IX | | | | | | 1. _Argynnis diana_, Cramer, ?. | | 2. _Argynnis diana_, Cramer, ?. | | 3. _Argynnis cybele_, Fabricius, ?. | | 4. _Argynnis cybele_, Fabricius, ?. | | 5. _Argynnis leto_, Behr, ?. | | 6. _Argynnis leto_, Behr, ?. | | | | | | [Ill.u.s.tration PLATE IX.] | +--------------------------------------------------------------+

Genus ARGYNNIS, Fabricius

(The Fritillaries, the Silver-spots)