SUBFAMILY NYMPHALINÆ (THE NYMPHS)
"Entomology extends the limits of being in new directions, so that I walk in nature with a sense of greater space and freedom. It suggests, besides, that the universe is not rough-hewn, but perfect in its details. Nature will bear the closest inspection; she invites us to lay our eye level with the smallest leaf and take an insect view of its plane."—Thoreau.
"My butterfly-net and pocket magnifying-glass are rare companions for a walk in the country."—William Hamilton Gibson, Sharp Eyes, p. 117.
Butterfly.—The butterflies of this subfamily are mainly of moderate or large size, though some of the genera contain quite small species. The antennæ are always more or less heavily clothed with scales, and are usually as long as the abdomen, and in a few cases even longer. The club is always well developed; it is usually long, but in some genera is short and stout. The palpi are short and stout, densely clothed with scales and hairs. The thorax is relatively stout, in some genera exceedingly so. The fore wings are relatively broad, the length being to the breadth in most cases in the ratio of 5 to 3, or 3 to 2, though in a few mimetic forms these wings are greatly produced, and narrow, patterning after the outline of the Heliconians and Ithomiids, which they mimic. The fore wings are in most genera produced at the apex, and more or less strongly excavated on the outer margin below the apex. The discoidal cell is usually less than half the length of the wing from base to tip. It is occasionally open, but is more generally closed at its outer extremity by discocellular veins diminishing in thickness from the upper to the lower outer angle of the cell. The costal nervure usually terminates midway between the end of the cell and the tip. The two inner subcostal nervules usually arise before the end of the cell; the outer subcostal nervules invariably arise beyond the end of the cell.
The hind wings are rounded or angulated, with the outer border scalloped or tailed; the inner border always affords a channel for the reception of the abdomen. The costal nervule invariably terminates at the external angle of this wing. The discoidal cell is frequently open, or simply closed by a slender veinlet, which it is not always easy to detect; the anal vein is never lacking.
The fore legs are greatly reduced in the male, less so in the female.
Egg.—The egg is either somewhat globular, or else barrel-shaped, with the sides marked with net-like elevations, or vertically ribbed (see Figs. 1, 8, 10).
Caterpillar.—When first emerging from the egg the caterpillar is generally furnished with long hairs rising singly from wart-like elevations which are arranged either in longitudinal rows or in geometric patterns (Fig. 85). As the caterpillars pass their successive moults the hairs are transformed into branching spines or tubercles (see Plate III, Figs. 28-38).
[a]Fig. 85.]—Caterpillar of Vanessa antiopa, just hatched. (Greatly magnified.) (After Scudder.)