Butterfly.—Butterflies of medium size, their wings marked with eye-like spots, or ocelli. Upon the upper surface they are generally obscurely colored of some shade of gray or brown, occasionally marked with bands of yellow. On the under side the wings are generally beautifully striated and spotted, with the eye-like spots more prominent. The costal vein at the base is greatly swollen; the median and submedian veins less so. The first and second subcostal nervules arise very near the end of the cell, slightly before it. The outer margin of the fore wing is evenly rounded; the outer margin of the hind wing somewhat scalloped; the head small, the eyes of moderate size, full, naked; the antennæ gradually thickening to a broadly rounded club, which is slightly depressed; the palpi slender, compressed, profusely clothed beneath with long hairs. The fore legs are very small.
[a]Fig. 121.]—Neuration of the genus Satyrus. (After Scudder.)
Egg.—Short, barrel-shaped, greatly diminishing in size on the upper half; truncated at the summit; the sides furnished with a large number of vertical ribs, not very high, with numerous delicate cross-lines between them. At the summit the ribs are connected by a waved, raised elevation.
Caterpillar.—Head globular; body cylindrical, tapering from the middle forward and backward; provided with short and slender diverging anal horns.
Chrysalis.—Shaped very much as in the genus Debis, from which it is hardly distinguishable. Generally green in color.
This genus includes numerous species which are more or less subject to varietal modifications. In the following pages I have treated as species a number of forms which by some writers are reckoned as mere varieties. Whether the view of those who regard these forms in the light of varieties is correct is not perfectly plain to me, and we cannot be sure until more extensive experiments in breeding have been carried out.
(1) Satyrus pegala, Fabricius, Plate XXVI, Fig. 18, ♁, under side (The Southern Wood-nymph).
Butterfly.—The largest species of the genus in our fauna, easily recognized by the broad yellow submarginal band on the primaries, marked with a single eye-spot in the male and two eye-spots in the female. The plate gives a correct idea of the under side of the wings. Expanse, 2.75 inches.