Caterpillar.—In its mature stage the caterpillar is short, slug-shaped, covered with a multitude of bristling hairs, upon which it gathers the white exudations or scales of the mealy bugs upon which it feeds.
[a]Fig. 134.]—Neuration of the genus Feniseca, enlarged.
Chrysalis.—Small, brown in color; when viewed dorsally showing a remarkable and striking likeness to the face of a monkey, a singular phenomenon which also appears even more strikingly in chrysalids of the allied genus Spalgis, which is found in Africa and Asia.
But one species of the genus is known.
(1) Feniseca tarquinius, Fabricius, Plate XXVIII, Fig. 21, ♂; Plate V, Figs. 45, 46, chrysalis (The Harvester).
Butterfly.—The upper side of the wings is well depicted in the plate. There is considerable variation, however, in the size of the black markings upon the upper surface, and I have specimens in which they almost entirely disappear. On the under side the wings are paler; the spots of the upper side reappear, and, in addition, the hind wings are mottled profusely with small pale-brown spots. Expanse, 1.30 inch.
Early Stages.—What has been said of these in the description of the genus will suffice for the species.
This curious little insect, which finds its nearest allies in Asia and Africa, ranges all over the Atlantic States from Nova Scotia to the Carolinas, and throughout the valley of the Mississippi.
Genus CHRYSOPHANUS, Doubleday
(The Coppers)