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).
[Illustration FIG. 85.--Caterpillar of _Vanessa antiopa_, just hatched. (Greatly magnified.) (After Scudder.)]
_Chrysalis._--The chrysalis invariably hangs suspended from a button of silk, and is frequently furnished, especially on the dorsal or upper surface, with a number of prominences; the head is usually bifurcate, or cleft (see Plate IV, Figs. 21, 39, etc.).
This is the largest of all the subfamilies of the butterflies, and is widely distributed, including many of the most beautifully colored and most vigorous species which are known. There are twenty-six genera represented in our fauna, containing about one hundred and seventy species.
_Butterfly._--Butterflies of moderately large size, the fore wings greatly produced and relatively narrow; the hind wings evenly rounded and relatively small, of bright reddish-brown color, with darker markings. The species are mimics, and in the elongation of their wings reveal the influence of the Heliconians, protected species, which abound in the regions in which the genus attains its greatest development. The median vein in the upper wing is characterized by the presence at the base of a minute, thorn-like, external projection; the second subcostal nervule is emitted beyond the cell; the cell of the hind wing is open.
The life-history of the two species found within our fauna has not as yet been carefully worked out, and aside from a knowledge of the fact that the caterpillars closely resemble in many respects the caterpillars of the two succeeding genera, being provided with branching spines on their bodies, we do not know as yet enough to give any complete account of the early stages of these insects.