The Butterfly Book Part 24

(The Tortoise-sh.e.l.ls)

[Ill.u.s.tration FIG. 96.--Neuration of the genus _Vanessa_.]

_b.u.t.terfly._--Medium-sized insects, the wings on the upper side generally some shade of black or brown, marked with red, yellow, or orange. The head is moderately large, the eyes hairy, the palpi more or less heavily scaled, the prothoracic legs feeble and hairy. The lower discocellular vein of the fore wings, when present, unites with the third median nervule, not at its origin, but beyond on the curve. The cell of the primaries may or may not be closed. The cell of the secondaries is open. The fore wings have the outer margin more or less deeply excavated between the extremities of the upper radial and the first median, at which points the wings are rather strongly produced.

The hind wings have the outer margin denticulate, strongly produced at the extremity of the third median nervule.

_Egg._--Short, ovoid, broad at the base, tapering toward the summit, which is broad and adorned with a few narrow, quite high longitudinal ridges, increasing in height toward the apex. Between these ribs are a few delicate cross-lines. They are generally laid in large cl.u.s.ters upon twigs of the food-plant.

_Caterpillar._--The caterpillar moults four times. In the mature form it is cylindrical, the segments adorned with long, branching spines arranged in longitudinal rows; the spines much longer, and branching rather than beset with bristles, as in the genus _Grapta_. It lives upon elms, willows, and poplars.

_Chrysalis._--The chrysalis in general appearance is not unlike the chrysalis of _Grapta_.

The genus is mainly restricted to the north temperate zone and the mountain regions of tropical lands adjacent thereto. The insects hibernate in the imago form, and are among the first b.u.t.terflies to take wing in the springtime.

(1) =Vanessa j-alb.u.m=, Boisduval and Leconte, Plate XIX, Fig. 9, ? (The Compton Tortoise).

_b.u.t.terfly._--No description is required, as the figure in the plate will enable it to be immediately recognized. On the under side of the wings it resembles in color the species of the genus _Grapta_, from which the straight edge of the inner margin of the primaries at once distinguishes it. It is a very close ally of the European _V.

vau-alb.u.m_. Expanse, 2.60-2.75 inches.

The caterpillar feeds upon various species of willow. It is a Northern form, being found in Pennsylvania upon the summits of the Alleghanies, and thence north to Labrador on the east and Alaska on the west. It is always a rather scarce insect.

(2) =Vanessa californica=, Boisduval, Plate XX, Fig. 11, ? (The California Tortoise-sh.e.l.l).

_b.u.t.terfly._--On the upper side deep fulvous, mottled with yellow, spotted and bordered with black. On the under side dark brown; pale on the outer half of the primaries, the entire surface marked with dark lines and fine striae. Expanse, 2.00-2.25 inches.

_Early Stages._--The larva and chrysalis have been described by Henry Edwards in the "Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences," vol.

v, p. 171. The caterpillar feeds upon _Ceanothus thyrsiflorus_.

This insect is a close ally of the European _V. xanthomelas_. It ranges from Colorado to California and as far north as Oregon.

+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | EXPLANATION OF PLATE XX | | | | 1. _Grapta satyrus_, Edwards, ?. | | 2. _Grapta satyrus_, Edwards, ?, | | _under side_. | | 3. _Grapta progne_, Cramer, ?. | | 4. _Grapta progne_, Cramer, ?, | | _under side_. | | 5. _Grapta zephyrus_, Edwards, ?. | | 6. _Grapta zephyrus_, Edwards, ?, | | _under side_. | | 7. _Junonia coenia_, Hubner, ?. | | 8. _Junonia lavinia_, Cramer, ?. | | 9. _Junonia genoveva_, Cramer, ?. | | 10. _Vanessa milberti_, G.o.dart, ?. | | 11. _Vanessa californica_, Boisduval, | | ?. | | 12. _Pyrameis caryae_, Hubner, ?. | | 13. _Anartia jatrophae_, Linnaeus, ?. | | | | [Ill.u.s.tration PLATE XX.] | +--------------------------------------------------------------+

(3) =Vanessa milberti=, G.o.dart, Plate XX, Fig. 10, ?; Plate III, Fig. 36, _larva_; Plate IV, Figs. 43, 49, 50, _chrysalis_ (Milbert's Tortoise-sh.e.l.l).

_b.u.t.terfly._--Easily distinguished by the broad yellow submarginal band on both wings, shaded outwardly by red. It is nearly related to the European _V. urticae_. Expanse, 1.75 inch.

The life-history has been worked out and described by numerous writers.

The caterpillars feed upon the nettle (_Urtica_).

This pretty little fly ranges from the mountains of West Virginia northward to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, thence westward to the Pacific.

(4) =Vanessa antiopa=, Linnaeus, Plate I, Fig. 6, ?; Plate III, Fig. 28, _larva_; Plate IV, Figs. 51, 58, 59, _chrysalis_ (The Mourning-cloak; The Camberwell Beauty).

_b.u.t.terfly._--This familiar insect needs no description. It is well known to every boy in the north temperate zone. It is one of the commonest as well as one of the most beautiful species of the tribe. A rare aberration in which the yellow border invades the wing nearly to the middle, obliterating the blue spots, is sometimes found. The author has a fine example of this "freak."

The eggs are laid in cl.u.s.ters upon the twigs of the food-plant in spring (see p. 5, Fig. 11). There are at least two broods in the Northern States. The caterpillars feed on willows, elms, and various species of the genus _Populus_.

Genus PYRAMEIS, Doubleday

_b.u.t.terfly._--The wings in their neuration approach closely to the preceding genus, but are not angulate, and the ornamentation of the under side tends to become ocellate, or marked by eye-like spots, and in many of the species is ocellate.

_Egg._--The egg is broadly ovoid, being much like the egg of the genus _Vanessa_.

_Caterpillar._--The caterpillar in its mature form is covered with spines, but these are not relatively as large as in _Vanessa_, and are not as distinctly branching.

_Chrysalis._--The chrysalis approaches in outline the chrysalis of the preceding genus, and is only differentiated by minor structural peculiarities.

The genus includes only a few species, but some of them have a wide range, _Pyrameis cardui_ being almost cosmopolitan, and having a wider distribution than any other known b.u.t.terfly.

(1) =Pyrameis atalanta=, Linnaeus, Plate XLIII, Fig. 4, ?; Plate III, Fig. 35, _larva_; Plate IV, Figs. 52, 53, 55, _chrysalis_ (The Red Admiral).

This familiar b.u.t.terfly, which is found throughout North America, Europe, northern Asia, and Africa, needs no description beyond what is furnished in the plates. Expanse, 2.00 inches. The food-plants are _Humulus_, _Boehmeria_, and _Urtica_.

[Ill.u.s.tration FIG. 97.--Neuration of the genus _Pyrameis_.]

(2) =Pyrameis huntera=, Plate I, Fig. 2, ?; Plate x.x.xIII, Fig. 6, ?, _under side_; Plate III, Fig. 34, _larva_; Plate IV, Figs. 54, 63, 64, _chrysalis_ (Hunter's b.u.t.terfly).

_b.u.t.terfly._--Marked much like the following species, but easily distinguished at a glance by the two large eye-like spots on the under side of the hind wings. Expanse, 2.00 inches.

_Early Stages._--These have been frequently described, and are in part well depicted in Plates III and IV. The food-plants are cudweed (_Gnaphalium_) and _Antennaria_.

Hunter's b.u.t.terfly ranges from Nova Scotia to Mexico and Central America east of the Sierras.

(3) =Pyrameis cardui=, Linnaeus, Plate I, Fig. 1, ?; Plate III, Fig. 37, _larva_; Plate IV, Figs. 60-62, _chrysalis_ (The Painted Lady; The Thistle-b.u.t.terfly).

_b.u.t.terfly._--This is undoubtedly the most widely distributed of all known b.u.t.terflies, being found in almost all parts of the temperate regions of the earth and in many tropical lands in both hemispheres. It is easily distinguished from the preceding species by the more numerous and much smaller eye-like spots on the under side of the hind wings.

Expanse, 2.00-2.25 inches.

_Early Stages._--These have been again and again described at great length and with minute particularity by a score of authors. The food-plants of the caterpillar are thistles (_Carduus_), _Urtica_, _Cnicus_, and _Althaea_.

(4) =Pyrameis caryae=, Hubner, Plate XX, Fig. 12, ? (The West Coast Lady).

_b.u.t.terfly._--This species is easily distinguished from _P. cardui_, its nearest ally, by the absence of the roseate tint peculiar to that species, the tawnier ground-color of the upper surfaces, and the complete black band which crosses the middle of the cell of the primaries. Expanse, 2.00 inches.

_Early Stages._--These have not all been thoroughly described, but we have an account of the larva and chrysalis from the pen of Henry Edwards, in the "Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences,"

vol. v, p. 329. The food-plant of the caterpillar is _Lavatera a.s.surgentiflora_. This species ranges from Vancouver's Island to Argentina, and is found as far east as Utah.

WIDELY DISTRIBUTED b.u.t.tERFLIES

The primal curse declared that the earth, because of man's sin, should bring forth thorns and thistles, and thistles are almost everywhere.

Wherever thistles grow, there is found the thistle-b.u.t.terfly, or the "Painted Lady," as English collectors are in the habit of calling it, _Pyrameis cardui_. All over Europe, all over North America, in Africa,--save in the dense jungles of the Congo,--throughout South America, in far-off Australia, and in many of the islands of the sea this beautiful b.u.t.terfly is found. At some times it is scarce, and then again there are seasons when it fairly swarms, every thistle-top having one of the gaily colored creatures seated upon its head, and among the th.o.r.n.y environment of the leaves being found the web which the caterpillar weaves. Another b.u.t.terfly which bids fair ultimately to take possession of the earth is our own _Anosia plexippus_, the wanderings of which have already been alluded to.

Many species are found in the arctic regions both of the Old World and the New. Obscure forms are these, and lowly in their organization, survivors of the ice-age, hovering on the borderline of eternal frost, and pointing to the long-distant time when the great land-ma.s.ses about the northern pole were knit together, as geologists teach us.

One of the curious phenomena in the distribution of b.u.t.terflies is the fact that in Florida we find _Hypolimnas misippus_, a species which is exceedingly common in Africa and in the Indo-Malayan subregion. Another curious phenomenon of a like character is the presence in the Canary Islands of a _Pyrameis_, which appears to be only a subvariety of the well-known _Pyrameis indica_, which is common in India, southern China, and j.a.pan. Away off in southeastern Africa, upon the peaks and foot-hills which surround the huge volcanic ma.s.ses of Kilima-Njaro, Kenia, and Ruwenzori, was discovered by the martyred Bishop Hannington a beautiful species of _Argynnis_, representing a genus nowhere else found upon the continent of Africa south of Mediterranean lands. Strange isolation this for a b.u.t.terfly claiming kin to the fritillaries that sip the sweets from clover-blossoms in the Bernese Oberland, in the valleys of Thibet, and on the prairies of the United States.