(2) Pyrrhanæa morrisoni (Edwards), [Plate LVI], ♀ (Morrison’s Goatweed Butterfly).
More brilliantly and deeply red on upper side than preceding species. Both male and female have the wings with bands of lighter color on the limbal area, but these are not solid, as in the female of P. andria, but made up of spots, as shown in the figure. Expanse 2.25-2.50 inches.
Found in Arizona and Mexico.
The genus which is here engaging our attention is one which is wonderfully well represented in the New World, where it takes the place of the magnificent insects belonging to the genus Charaxes of the tropics of the Old World. On the under side they closely mimic dried leaves. This assimilation to the color of dead leaves is protective.
Genus AGERONIA Hübner
(The Calicoes).
PL. LVII
Medium or moderately large-sized butterflies. Costal and subcostal fused near base; cells of both wings closed. Upper side of wings curiously marked with checkered spots, generally some shade of blue with white; under side with broad paler shades: white, yellow, or red. They are rapid fliers, alight on the trunks of trees head downward, wings expanded against the bark of the tree. When they fly they make a clicking sound with their wings. The manner in which this sound is produced is a mystery. Bates in his A Naturalist on the Amazons writes about it but gives no explanation. In my rambles in tropical forests I have heard it as the insects gyrated above my head, but I do not know how the sound is made.
There are about thirty species of the genus in tropical America, two of which are occasionally found in southern Texas.
(1) Ageronia feronia (Linnæus), [Plate LVII], ♂ (The White-skirted Calico).