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) Melitæa arachne, Edwards, Plate XVI, Fig. 22, ♁ (Arachne).
Butterfly.—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) Melitæa nympha, Edwards, Plate XVI, Fig. 21, ♂ (Nympha).
Butterfly.—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 Melitæa illustrated 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.