Butterflies Worth Knowing Part 21

An even more local insect is another of these mountain b.u.t.terflies found by H. H. Newcomb on Mount Katahdin, Maine. So far as known this species is confined to the higher portion of this mountain and so is even more distinctly localized than the White Mountain b.u.t.terfly. It is called the Katahdin b.u.t.terfly (_Oeneis norna katahdin_).

=The Little Wood Satyr= _Cissia eurytus_

This elfin creature has well been named the Little Wood Satyr, although under our modern conditions it is often found in fields and along hedgeroads rather than in the woods. It has, to a marked degree, the delicacy of structure of its allies and its small size serves to emphasize this appearance. It has also a rather general distribution west to the Mississippi Valley, extending from the corner of Dakota, south through Nebraska, Kansas, and central Texas, and north to Wisconsin, Michigan, and New England. It occupies the whole of the United States east and south of the lines thus indicated.

The life-history of this species is very similar to the Common Grayling. The b.u.t.terflies appear in early summer, deposit their eggs upon gra.s.ses, and the resulting larvae feed upon the gra.s.ses and grow slowly through the weeks of summer. They become nearly full grown by autumn and hibernate in this condition in such shelter as they can find at the soil surface. The following spring they come forth, probably feeding for a short time, and change to chrysalids in time to emerge as b.u.t.terflies in May and early June. Practically all observers emphasize the fact that the b.u.t.terflies are abundant only late in spring or early in summer, generally disappearing before the middle of July. There is thus but one brood a year.

_Other Meadow-browns_

The _Gemmed Brown_ (_Neonympha gemma_) is a small southern species remarkable for the plainness of its gray-brown wings which are marked on the upper surface only with two or three dark spots on the middle margin of each hind wing. There are two broods a year.

The _Georgia Satyr_ (_Neonympha phocion_) is another small southern form, remarkable for the four elongated eye-spots on the lower surface of each hind wing. The shape of these spots distinguishes it at once from the _Carolina Satyr_ (_Cissia sosybius_) in which the eye-spots are rounded.

_Synopsis of Meadow-browns_

_Pearly Eye_ (_Enodia portlandia_ or _Debis portlandia_). Expanse 2 1/4 inches. Eyes hairy. Outer margin of hind wings projecting in a noticeable angle. Brown with many distinct eye-spots on both surfaces of wings.

_Eyed Brown_ (_Satyrodes canthus_ or _Neonympha canthus_). Expanse 2 inches. Eyes hairy. Margin of hind wings rounded, without an angle.

Both surfaces of wings pale brown with four distinct blackish eye-spots on each front wing near the margin. Five or six such spots on each hind wing.

_Common Wood-nymph_ or _Grayling_ (_Cercyonis alope_). Expanse 2 inches. Eyes not hairy. Eye-spots on front wings, but not on upper surface of hind wings. The chief geographical races of this abundant species are indicated below, although in regions where the forms overlap many intermediate hybrids occur.

_Blue-eyed Grayling_ (_Cercyonis alope alope_). A large yellowish-brown blotch near outer margin of each front wing, above and below, with two distinct eye-spots in middle s.p.a.ces of the blotch. A southern race extending north to central New Hamps.h.i.+re, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

_Dull-eyed Grayling_ (_Cercyonis alope nephele_). The yellowish brown blotch obsolete or nearly so, but eye-spots present. A northern race extending southward only to central New Hamps.h.i.+re, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

_Maritime Grayling_ (_Cercyonis alope maritima_). Similar to the type form, but with the yellowish blotch tinged with reddish. A race found only near the seacoast.

_Southern Wood-nymph_ (_Cercyonis pegala_). Expanse 3 inches. Eyes not hairy. General color brown with an orange-yellow blotch near outer margin of each front wing above and below with one eye-spot in middle s.p.a.ce of the blotch on the male, and two on the female.

_Little Wood-satyr_ (_Cissia eurytus_ or _Neonympha eurytus_). Expanse 1 1/2 inches. Eyes not hairy. General color fawn-brown with two eye-spots on upper surface of each front wing and several on each hind wing.

_Gemmed Brown_ (_Neonympha gemma_). Expanse 1 1/4 inches. Eyes not hairy. General color mouse-brown with no markings on upper wing surface except a rather indistinct pair or more of spots next the margin of the middle of each hind wing. Under surface indistinctly striped with rusty lines and a few brown and silvery spots on the hind wings directly beneath the spots on the upper surfaces. Occurs in Southern states.

_Georgia Satyr_ (_Neonympha phocion_). Expanse 1 1/4 inches.

Distinguished from the related species by the four distinct eye-spots on lower surface of each hind wing, these spots being transversely elongated rather than round. Occurs in Southern states.

_Carolina Satyr_ (_Cissia sosybius_). Expanse 1 1/4 inches.

Distinguished by the row of round eye-spots near outer margins of lower wing surface. Occurs in Southern states.

THE HELICONIANS

FAMILY _Heliconidae_

This is a tropical family with only a single species migrating northward to our Southern states. The b.u.t.terflies of this group are characterized by having the wings so long and narrow that their length is usually twice as great as their width. The front legs in both s.e.xes are so poorly developed that they are considered a modification approaching the complete dwarfing found in the Brush-footed b.u.t.terflies.

=The Zebra b.u.t.terfly= _Heliconius Charitonius_

While the b.u.t.terflies of temperate North America show many examples of marvelous beauty and coloring, one must go to the tropics to see the culmination of what nature has done in painting the outstretched membranes of b.u.t.terfly wings with gorgeous colors. The great b.u.t.terfly tribes that swarm in tropical forests seldom reach our temperate clime, and even when they do they are likely to show only a suggestion of the splendid size and rich coloring to be seen farther south. The Zebra b.u.t.terfly (_Heliconius charitonius_) belongs to one of these tropical tribes. It shows its affinities by its coloring and the curious shape of its wings. In most of our northern b.u.t.terflies, the wings are about as long as they are wide, but in the tropical family, _Heliconidae_, they are very much longer than wide. This gives the insect an entirely different look from our common forms so that one recognizes it at once as a stranger within our gates. Indeed, it does not penetrate far into our region, being found commonly only in Florida and one or two other neighboring states, its princ.i.p.al home being in tropical America.

The Zebra b.u.t.terfly is well named. Across the brownish black wings there runs a series of yellow stripes, three on each front wing and one on each hind wing, with a sub-marginal row of white spots on each of the latter. The under surface is much like the upper, except that the coloring is distinctly paler. It is very variable in size: some specimens may be but two and a half inches across the expanded wings, while others are four inches. (_See plate, page 224._)

The Zebra caterpillars feed upon the leaves of the pa.s.sion flower.

When full grown they are about an inch and a half long, whitish, more or less marked with brownish black spots arranged in transverse rows, and partially covered with longitudinal rows of barbed black spines.

They change to chrysalids which are remarkable for their irregular shape, with two leaf-like projections on the head which the insect can move in a most curious fas.h.i.+on.

One of the most notable things about this insect is the fact that the male b.u.t.terflies are attracted to the chrysalids of the females even before the latter emerge. Many observers have reported upon this curious phenomenon and have recorded experiments demonstrating that it is a general habit with the species.

_The Roosting Habits_

The adult b.u.t.terflies flock together at night and rest upon the Spanish moss which festoons so many of the trees in the Far South, or upon dead branches. They take positions with heads upward and wings closed, many of them often flocking together to roost, and wandering out to the near-by fields when the morning sun gives them renewed activity. But these b.u.t.terflies are essentially forest insects.

Reliable observers have noticed that when one emerges from a chrysalis it flies up in the air and makes straight for the nearest woods.

Others have noticed that when a b.u.t.terfly in a field is alarmed it also makes for the woods. And in the regions where the species is abundant the b.u.t.terflies are most likely to be found in paths and glades in the forest. Thus they show the influence of their ancestral habitat in the tropical wilderness.

There seems to be a certain amount of ceremony attending the flocking together at night for roosting purposes. A famous English naturalist, Philip Henry Gosse, saw the performance in the West Indies many years ago and described it in these words:

"Pa.s.sing along a rocky foot-path on a steep wooded mountain side, in the Parish of St. Elizabeth (Jamaica), about the end of August, 1845, my attention was attracted, just before sunset, by a swarm of these b.u.t.terflies in a sort of rocky recess, overhung by trees and creepers.

They were about twenty in number, and were dancing to and fro, exactly in the manner of gnats, or as _Hepioli_ play at the side of a wood.

After watching them awhile, I noticed that some of them were resting with closed wings at the extremities of one or two depending vines.

One after another fluttered from the group of dancers to the reposing squadron, and alighted close to the others, so that at length, when only two or three of the fliers were left, the rest were collected in groups of half a dozen each, so close together that each group might have been grasped in the hand. When once one had alighted, it did not in general fly again, but a new-comer, fluttering at the group, seeking to find a place, sometimes disturbed one recently settled, when the wings were thrown open, and one or two flew up again. As there were no leaves on the hanging stalks, the appearance presented by these beautiful b.u.t.terflies, so crowded together, their long, erect wings pointing in different directions, was not a little curious. I was told by persons residing near that every evening they thus a.s.sembled, and that I had not seen a third part of the numbers often collected in that spot."

THE MILKWEED b.u.t.tERFLIES

FAMILY _Lymnadidae_

So far as the great majority of readers of this book are concerned, this family includes but one species--the familiar Monarch or Milkweed b.u.t.terfly. In the Southern states there is another--the Queen--and in Florida, still a third. The distinguis.h.i.+ng characteristics are found in the dwarfed, useless front legs and the absence of scales upon the antennae.

=The Monarch= _Anosia plexippus_

From June until October one may often see the stately Monarch flitting leisurely about over fields and meadows. It is one of the largest and most distinctive of these "frail children of the air" and may be easily recognized by its resemblance to the picture opposite page 241.

The veins of the wings are heavily marked in black, with large white dots upon the black bands along the margin. The color of the rest of the wings both above and below is reddish brown.