Genus LEREMA Scudder
PL. CXLIX
(1) Lerema accius (Smith & Abbot), [Plate CXLIX], Fig. 1, ♂ (The Grimy Skipper).
The wings on the under side are dark fuscous clouded with still deeper brown or black. Expanse 1.40-1.50 inch.
Occurs from Connecticut to Central America, being quite rare in the north but very common in the hot lands of the south.
(2) Lerema hianna (Scudder), [Plate CXLIX], Fig. 2, ♂ (The Dusted Skipper).
The upper side is well represented in our figure. On the under side the wings are a little paler, especially the hind wings, which on their outer half are dusted with gray, in certain lights having a bluish cast. Expanse 1.15-1.25 inch.
Ranges from New England to Nebraska and southward, but, so far as the writer knows not reaching the Gulf States.
Subfamily MEGATHYMINÆ
(The Giant Skippers).
These curious insects have been by some writers placed among the Castniidæ, a family of day-flying moths, but as the author stated in 1898 in “The Butterfly Book,” they appear to have much more in common with the Hesperiidæ than the Castniidæ. The proposition to include them in the Hesperiidæ as a subfamily under the name given above has since that time been generally accepted by systematists. There are a number of species belonging to the genus Megathymus, several of which occur within our faunal limits, but we shall content ourselves with figuring only the one, which those readers of this book who live in Missouri and south and west of that state are likely to see.