Ranges from Maine to Colorado, southward to northern Virginia.
(5) Chrysophanus helloides (Boisduval), [Plate XC], Fig. 1, ♂ (The Purplish Copper).
The male has the wings on the upper side broadly shot with iridescent purple; the female, which is larger than the male, has the wings red, with less iridescence. Below the fore wings in both sexes are pale red, the hind wings reddish gray with a marginal row of brick-red crescents. Expanse 1.15-1.30 inch.
Ranges from northern Illinois to British Columbia.
Genus LYCÆNA Fabricius
(The Blues).
The butterflies in this group are generally small, with the upper side of some shade of pale blue. On the under side the wings are paler in color, variously marked with spots and lines. The genus in recent years has been subdivided into smaller subgenera but as an ability to discriminate these involves a knowledge of minuter anatomical details, which is only possessed by specialists, the writer has not deemed it worth the while in a little manual like this to go deeply into these matters. The old name Lycæna, which has been in vogue for a century, and which is still applied to part of the group, is sufficiently characteristic. If we were reviewing all the species of the world, of which there are many hundreds in this assemblage of forms, we would be forced to use the minuter methods of classification. The eggs are turban-shaped; the caterpillars are slug-shaped, feeding on the petals and bracts of flowers or tender terminal leaves; the chrysalids are short, rounded at either end, supported by a silken girdle and closely appressed to the supporting surface.
(1) Lycæna couperi Grote, [Plate XC], Fig. 2, ♂, under side (Couper’s Blue).
On the upper side the wings of the male are pale shining blue with a narrow black border; of the female darker blue broadly margined with dusky. On the under side in both sexes the wings are brownish gray relieved with white spots, having dark pupils. Expanse 1.25 inch. It is a boreal form.
(2) Lycæna aster Edwards, [Plate XC], Fig. 3, ♂, under side (The Aster Blue).
On the upper side the male is pale lilac-blue, the female darker blue, with a submarginal row of paler blue spots on the margin of the hind wing. On the under side the fore wings have a dark bar at the end of the cell followed on the limbal area with a curved band of small dark spots. This style of decoration is repeated on the hind wings, and in addition there is a marginal band of pale yellow oval spots, each surrounded by a fine black encircling line. Expanse 0.95-1.00 inch. The insect is known thus far only from Newfoundland.