+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | EXPLANATION OF PLATE VIII | | | | | | 1. _Dircenna klugi_, Hübner, ♂. | | 2. _Mechanitis californica_, Reakirt, ♂. | | 3. _Ceratinia lycaste_, Fabricius, ♂. | | 4. _Coloenis delila_, Fabricius, ♂. | | 5. _Heliconius charitonius_, Linnæus, ♂. | | 6. _Coloenis julia, Fabricius_, ♂. | | 7. _Dione vanillæ_, Linnæus, ♂. | | 8. _Euptoieta hegesia_, Cramer, ♂. | | 9. _Euptoieta claudia_, Cramer, ♂. | | | | | | [Illustration PLATE VIII.] | +--------------------------------------------------------------+
Reakirt says that this butterfly occurs about Los Angeles, in California, and the statement has been repeated by numerous authors, who have apparently based their assertions upon Reakirt's report. I have no personal knowledge of the occurrence of the species within our borders. It is very abundant, however, in the warmer parts of Mexico and Central America, and it may possibly occur as a straggler within the United States.
_Butterfly._--Medium-sized butterflies, for the most part with quite transparent wings. The most characteristic features of this genus, separating it from its near allies, are the thread-like front feet of the females, furnished with four-jointed tarsi (Fig. 83), the very hairy palpi, and the wide cell of the hind wing, abruptly terminating about the middle of the wing. Furthermore, in the male sex the hind wing is strongly bowed out about the middle of the costal margin, and the costal vein tends to coalesce with the subcostal about the middle.
[Illustration FIG. 83.--Fore leg of _Dircenna klugii_, ♀, greatly magnified.]
_Early Stages._--Very little is as yet known about the early stages of these insects, and what has been said of the characteristics of the caterpillars and chrysalids of the subfamily of the Ithomiinæ must suffice us here.
[Illustration FIG. 82.--Neuration of the genus _Dircenna_.]
This genus numbers a large array of species which are found in the hottest parts of the tropics of the New World. They fairly swarm in wooded paths amid the jungle of the Amazonian region, and no collection, however small, is ever received from those parts without containing specimens belonging to the group.