The Butterfly Book Part 20

The specimens I have came from the Death Valley. The species occurs in southern Utah and Arizona.

(25) =Melitaea thekla=, Edwards, Plate XVII, Fig. 15, ?, _under side_; Fig. 16, ? (Thekla).

_b.u.t.terfly_, ?.--The upper side of the wings is fulvous, black toward the base and on the outer margin. The primaries are adorned with a large oval pale-fulvous spot at the end of the cell, a small one on the middle of the upper side of the cell, and another small one below the cell, at the origin of the first median nervule. The discal area is defined outwardly by a very irregular fine black transverse line, beyond which is a transverse band of pale-fulvous oblong spots, an incomplete series of spots of the ground-color sharply defined upon the black outer shade, followed by a row of irregular white submarginal spots. The transverse bands of spots on the primaries are repeated upon the secondaries, where they are more regular and the spots more even in size. On the under side both wings are pale red, with the light spots of the upper side reappearing as pale-yellow sharply defined spots. The fringes are checkered black and white.

?.--Much like the male, but larger. Expanse, ?, 1.35-1.50 inch; ?, 1.50-1.75 inch.

_Early Stages._--Unknown.

This species is common in Texas. It is identical, as an examination of the type shows, with _M. bolli_, Edwards, and the latter name as a synonym falls into disuse.

(26) =Melitaea minuta=, Edwards, Plate XVII, Fig. 11, ?, _under side_; Fig. 12, ? (The Smaller Checker-spot).

_b.u.t.terfly_, ?.--This species is fulvous on the upper side, rather regularly banded with black lines. The veins are also black. The result is that the wings appear to be more regularly checkered than in any other species which is closely allied to this. The markings of the under side are white edged with black, and are shown very well in the plate, so that a lengthy description is unnecessary. Expanse, ?, 1.25-1.35 inch; ?, 1.50-1.60 inch.

_Early Stages._--Unknown.

The specific name, _minuta_, is not altogether appropriate. There are many smaller species of the genus. It is found rather commonly in Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico.

(27) =Melitaea arachne=, Edwards, Plate XVI, Fig. 22, ? (Arachne).

_b.u.t.terfly._--I have given in the plate a figure of a female bearing this name in the Edwards collection. It is remarkably pale on the upper side. There is a large series of types and paratypes in the collection, but all of them vary on the upper side of the wings in the intensity of the fulvous ground-color and the width of the black markings. Underneath they are absolutely like _M. minuta_. I think _M. arachne_ is without much doubt a synonym for _M. minuta_. The species varies very greatly.

The types are from Colorado and western Texas. Expanse as in _M.

minuta_.

_Early Stages._--Unknown.

(28) =Melitaea nympha=, Edwards, Plate XVI, Fig. 21, ? (Nympha).

_b.u.t.terfly._--This species differs from _M. minuta_ only in having the black markings darker and the outer median bands of spots on the upper side yellow. On the under side the pattern of the markings is exactly as in _M. minuta_. It seems to me to be a dark, aberrant form of _M.

minuta_, but is very well marked, and constant in a large series of specimens, so that we cannot be sure until some one breeds these creatures from the egg. Expanse, the same as that of _M. minuta_.

_Early Stages._--Unknown.

Habitat, Arizona.

In addition to the species of the genus _Melitaea_ ill.u.s.trated in our plates there are a few others which are credited to our fauna, some of these correctly and some erroneously, and a number of so-called species have been described which are not true species, but varieties or aberrations.

COLLECTING IN j.a.pAN

I was tired of the Seiyo-ken, the only hotel at which foreigners could be entertained without the discomfort of sleeping upon the floor. There is a better hotel in Tokyo now. I had looked out for five days from my window upon the stinking ca.n.a.l through which the tide ebbs and flows in Tsukiji. I felt if I stayed longer in the lowlands that I would contract malarial fever or some other uncomfortable ailment, and resolved to betake myself to the mountains, the glorious mountains, which rise all through the interior of the country, wrapped in verdure, their giant summits capped with clouds, many of them the abode of volcanic thunder.

So I went by rail to the terminus of the road, got together the coolies to pull and push my jinrikishas, and, accompanied by a troop of native collectors, made my way up the Usui-toge, the pa.s.s over which travelers going from western j.a.pan into eastern j.a.pan laboriously crept twelve years ago.

What a sunset when we reached an elevation of three thousand feet above the paddy-fields which stretch across the Kwanto to the Gulf of Yeddo!

What a furious thunder-storm came on just as night closed in! Then at half-past nine the moon struggled out from behind the clouds, and we pushed on up over the muddy roads, until at last a cold breath of night air sweeping from the west began to fan our faces, and we realized that we were at the top of the pa.s.s, and before us in the dim moonlight loomed the huge form of Asama-yama, that furious volcano, which more than once has laid the land waste for leagues around, and compared with which Vesuvius is a pygmy. We slept on j.a.panese mats, and in the morning, the drops glittering on every leaf, we started out to walk through the fields to Oiwake, our baggage going forward, we intending to loiter all day amid the charms of nature. Seven species of lilies bloomed about us in the hedges and the fields; a hundred plants, graceful and beautiful in blossom, scented the air with their aroma, and everywhere were b.u.t.terflies and bees. Above us hung in the sky a banner, the great cloud which by day and by night issues from the crater of Asama-yama. Five species of fritillaries flashed their silvery wings by copse and stream; great black papilios soared across the meadows; blue lycaenas, bright chrysophani, and a dozen species of wood-nymphs gamboled over the low herbage and among the gra.s.s. Torosan, my chief collector, was in his element. "Dana-san" (_my lord_, or _my master_), "this kind Yokohama no have got." "Dana-san, this kind me no catchee Tokyo side."

And so we wandered down the mountain-slope, taking species new alike to American and j.a.panese, until the sun was sinking in the west. The cloud-banner had grown crimson and purple in the sunset when we wandered into the hospitable doorway of the wayside inn at Oiwake. There we made our headquarters for the week, and thence we carried away a thousand b.u.t.terflies and moths and two thousand beetles as the guerdon of our chase.

Genus PHYCIODES, Doubleday

(The Crescent-spots)

"Flusheth the rise with her purple favor, Gloweth the cleft with her golden ring.

'Twixt the two brown b.u.t.terflies waver Lightly settle, and sleepily swing."

JEAN INGELOW.

_b.u.t.terfly._--The b.u.t.terflies composing this genus are generally quite small. Their wings on the upper side are fulvous, or brown with black margins, spots, and lines upon the upper side of the wings, and with the under side of the wings reproducing the spots of the upper side in paler tints. Of the spots of the under side of the wings one of the most characteristic is the pale crescent situated on the outer margin of the hind wings, between the ends of the second and third median nervules.

This spot is frequently pearly-white or silvered. Structurally the b.u.t.terflies of this genus may be distinguished from the preceding genus by the enlarged second joint of the palpi and the very fine, extremely pointed third joint. In the neuration of the wings and in their habits these b.u.t.terflies closely approximate _Melitaea_.

[Ill.u.s.tration FIG. 92.--Neuration of the genus _Phyciodes_.]

_Eggs._--The eggs are always higher than broad, with the surface at the base more or less pitted, giving them a thimble-like appearance. On the upper end in some species they have a few short, vertical ridges, radiating from the micropyle.

_Caterpillar._--The caterpillar is cylindrical, marked with pale longitudinal stripes upon a darker ground, and adorned with tubercles arranged in regular rows. These tubercles are generally much shorter than in the genus _Melitaea_. The caterpillars do not, so far as is known, weave webs at any time.

_Chrysalis._--The chrysalis is pendant, with the head slightly bifid.

The dorsal region of the abdomen is provided with slight tubercles. The color is generally some shade of pale gray, blotched with black or dark brown.

This genus finds its princ.i.p.al development in South and Central America, which are very rich in species, some of them mimicking in a most marvelous manner the b.u.t.terflies of the protected genus _Heliconius_ and its allies. The species found in the United States and Canada are for the most part not very gaily colored insects, chaste shades of brown, or yellow, and black predominating.

(1) =Phyciodes nycteis=, Doubleday and Hewitson, Plate XVII, Fig. 28, ?, _under side_; Fig. 29, ?; Fig. 30, ?; Plate V, Fig. 19, _chrysalis_ (Nycteis).

_b.u.t.terfly._--On the upper side very closely resembling _Melitaea_ harrisi, for which it may easily be mistaken upon the wing. The under side of the hind wings is very different, and may at once be distinguished by the lighter color of the base of the wing, and the pale, silvery crescent on the outer margin. Expanse, ? 1.25-1.65 inch; ?, 1.65-2.00 inches.

_Egg._--The egg is half as high again as broad, marked with sixteen or seventeen vertical ribs above, and pitted about the middle by hexagonal cells. It is pale green in color.

_Caterpillar._--The caterpillar undergoes four moults after hatching. In the mature stage it is velvety-black, with a dull orange stripe along the back, and purplish streaks on the sides. The body is studded with whitish spots, each giving rise to a delicate black hair, and is further beset with rather short, black, hairy spines.

_Chrysalis._--The chrysalis is pearly-gray, blotched with dark brown.

The life-history of this species has been carefully worked out, and all the details may be found described in the most minute manner by Edwards and by Scudder.

The insect ranges from Maine to North Carolina, and thence westward to the foot-hills of the Rocky Mountains.

(2) =Phyciodes ismeria=, Boisduval and Leconte, Plate XVII, Fig. 24, ?; Fig. 25, ?, _under side_ (Ismeria).

_b.u.t.terfly_, ?.--Easily distinguished from all other allied species by the double row of small light spots on the dark margin of the fore wings on the upper side, and by the silvery, narrow, and greatly bent line of bright silvery spots crossing the middle of the hind wings on the under side.

?.--The female is like the male, but larger and paler and all the spots on the upper side are pale fulvous, and not as distinctly white on the outer margin as in the male s.e.x. Expanse, ?, 1.15-1.35 inch; ?, 1.35-2.00 inches.

_Caterpillar._--The caterpillar, according to Boisduval and Leconte, is yellowish, with blackish spines and three longitudinal blackish stripes.

The head, the thoracic legs, and the under side are black; the other legs are yellow.

_Chrysalis._--According to the same authors, the chrysalis is pale gray, with paler light spots and nearly white dorsal tubercles.

This insect ranges over a wide territory from Canada to the Southern and Western States east of the Rocky Mountains.