Butterfly.—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 butterfly.
(1) Pyrameis atalanta, Linnæus, Plate XLIII, Fig. 4, ♂; Plate III, Fig. 35, larva; Plate IV, Figs. 52, 53, 55, chrysalis (The Red Admiral).
This familiar butterfly, 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, Bœhmeria, and Urtica.
[a]Fig. 97.]—Neuration of the genus Pyrameis.
(2) Pyrameis huntera, Plate I, Fig. 2, ♂; Plate XXXIII, Fig. 6, ♂, under side; Plate III, Fig. 34, larva; Plate IV, Figs. 54, 63, 64, chrysalis (Hunter's Butterfly).