PL. LXXVII
Small butterflies, the palpi enormously produced in comparison with other butterflies. The fore wings are strongly excavated on the outer margin, and produced at the end of the lower radial. The hind wing is upwardly lobed at the base, excised before the outer angle, and the outer margin is somewhat scalloped. The egg is ovoid, nearly twice as high as wide, ribbed, every other rib being higher than the one beside it and increasing in height toward the top. The caterpillar has a small head, overarched by the anterior swollen segments; it lives upon the hackberry ( Celtis). The chrysalis has the abdomen conical, the head pointed, with two raised ridges running from the head on either side to the middle of the first segment of the abdomen; between these ridges is a low tubercle.
There are numerous species found in all parts of the world, but only three occur within our limits. Of these we figure the one which is most widely distributed.
(1) Libythea bachmani Kirtland, [Plate LXXVII], ♂ (The Common Snout-butterfly).
The figure we give will enable the student to immediately recognize the insect.
It ranges from New England and Ontario southward and westward over the whole country as far as Arizona and northern Mexico.
Family ERYCINIDÆ
(The Metal-marks).
This is a great family of small or rather less than medium-sized butterflies, which is found in both the eastern and western hemispheres, but is mostly confined to the American tropics, where there are known to be about a thousand species, some of them remarkably beautiful in their colors and markings. The males have the fore legs aborted as in the case of the Nymphalidæ, while the females have six legs for walking. In this respect they resemble the Lycænidæ. The chrysalids are not pendent as are those of all the insects which we have hitherto described in this book, but are held in place by a silken girdle, and are closely appressed to the supporting surface. The strongest mark of distinction from other butterflies is the fact that the precostal vein of the hind wing is located on the extreme inner margin of the wing and sends out a little free hook, very much as is the case in many of the moths. The antennæ are very long and slender, distinctly knobbed at the end. Many genera have the peculiarity when alighting of not folding their wings, but carrying them flat, and they have also the habit of hiding under leaves, like moths. Most of the species found in our region occur in the Southwestern States, two alone are found in the Eastern States.
Genus CHARIS Hübner
(The Metal-marks).
