THE SKIPPERS
Monograph Number Five in The Mentor Reading Course
Hast thou heard the butterflies,
What they say betwixt their wings?—Tennyson.
All the little brown butterflies fluttering in various positions on this plate are Skippers, members of the family of the Hesperiidæ. These are generally small and stout and have a quick, strong flight. The most striking one here is the Long-tailed Skipper, flying downward on the left. The upper side of his wings are brown, glossed with green at the base. The fore wings are spotted. This butterfly lays its eggs on the wistaria and butterfly pea. Though tropical, Eudamus protens is occasionally found along the Atlantic seacoast as far north as New York.
In the upper right-hand corner is a female Brazilian Skipper, a robust, thick-bodied butterfly common in the Gulf States and North Carolina and ranging southward through the Antilles to Argentina.
A little below is the Common Sooty Wing, black on both sides of the wings with a series of little spots. It belongs to all of North America. The New Mexican Sooty Wing is in full flight at the upper left corner. It is common in Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico.
The brown one, the Sleepy Dusky Wing flying downward in the center and the large black one below the Common Sooty Wing belong to the genus Thanaos, the Dusky Wings, a group which reaches its largest development in North America. They are all dark; but a few varieties have bright spots on their hind wings.
Few know the one in the center, Plestea dorus, as it is confined to Arizona and Mexico. Its life history is unknown.
The brown one above the Long-tailed Skipper is called Afranius’s Dusky Wing. It is common in Arizona. The one below the Common Sooty Wing is Thanaos Clitus, having black hind wings with a broad fringe of white. Its home is Arizona and New Mexico. Nothing is known of its early stages.
The large butterfly in the lower left corner is Pyrrhopyginæ craxes, a native of southern Texas, Mexico, and farther south. Its antennæ end in curved, blunt clubs. When resting it spreads its wings horizontally. Nothing is known of its life history.
Poised on the clover a female Hoary Edge shows the under side of her wings. This belongs to the Middle and Southern States.
Flying toward the white bloom is a relative, a male Golden-banded Skipper, common in Virginia, the Carolinas, and westward to Arizona and Mexico.
Much more beautiful in form is the Swallowtail, Papilio rutulus, the Pacific Coast representative of the Tiger Swallowtail of the Atlantic States. Its ground color is a pale yellow, and it has tiger stripes like its near cousin.
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 3, No. 12, SERIAL No. 88
COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.