The butterflies of this subfamily have been arranged, so far as they are represented in the faunal region of which this book treats, in nine genera, which include about sixty species. It is quite possible that a number of species still remain to be discovered and described, though it is also true that some of the so-called species are likely to prove in the end little more than local races or varieties.
Genus DEBIS, Westwood (The Eyed Nymphs)
"The wild bee and the butterfly Are bright and happy things to see, Living beneath a summer sky."
Eliza Cook.
Butterfly.—Characterized by the stout but not greatly swollen costal vein of the fore wing, by the rather short costal vein of the hind wing, which terminates before quite reaching the outer angle, by the great length of the lower discocellular vein of the fore wing, and by the prolongation of the outer margin of the hind wing at the end of the third median nervule. The outer margin of the fore wing is either rounded or slightly excavated. The palpi are long and narrow, thickly clothed with hairs below; the antennæ are moderately long, gradually thickening toward the tip, without a well-marked club; the fore legs in both sexes greatly atrophied.
[a]Fig. 114.]—Neuration of the genus Debis. (After Scudder.)
Egg.—Flattened spheroidal, broadly truncated at the base, the surface smooth.
Caterpillar.—Body long, slender, tapering from the middle; the head cleft, each half being produced upward as a conical horn; the anal segment provided with a pair of horns similar to those of the head, produced longitudinally backward.
Chrysalis.—Strongly convex dorsally, concave ventrally, with a stout tubercular eminence on the thorax, without any other projecting tubercles or eminences; light green in color.