(1) =Ageronia feronia=, Linnæus, Plate XXIV, Fig. 4, ♂ (The White-skirted Calico).
_Butterfly._--Easily distinguished from the only other species of the genus found in our fauna by the white ground-color of the under side of the hind wings. Expanse, 2.50 inches.
This remarkable insect is said to be occasionally found in Texas.
(2) =Ageronia fornax=, Hübner, Plate XXIV, Fig. 5, ♂, _under side_ (The Orange-skirted Calico).
_Butterfly._--Closely resembling the preceding species on the upper side, but at once distinguished by the orange-yellow ground-color of the under side of the hind wing. Expanse, 2.60 inches.
Like its congener, _A. fornax_ is reported only from the hotter parts of Texas.
_Butterfly._--Large butterflies, curiously and conspicuously marked with light-greenish spots upon a darker ground; wings upon the under side marbled with brown about the spots and having a satiny luster. The third median nervule of the fore wing is very strongly bowed upward. The cells of both wings are open. The hind wing is tailed at the end of the third median nervule. The two first subcostals arise before the end of the cell; the fourth and fifth spring from a common stem which is emitted from the third beyond the end of the cell, as the cut shows.
_Early Stages._--We know nothing of these.
This genus, in which are reckoned five species, all found in the tropics of the New World, is represented by but a single species in our fauna, which occurs in southwestern Texas and in Florida. It is very common in the West Indies and Central America.
[Illustration FIG. 113.--Neuration of the genus _Victorina_.]
(1) =Victorina steneles=, Linnæus, Plate XXIV, Fig. 6, ♂ (The Pearly Malachite).
This splendid insect is occasionally found in southern Florida and the extreme southern part of Texas. It is common throughout tropical America. Nothing has ever been written upon its early stages.
Investigations within comparatively recent times have led to the discovery of a host of fossil insects. A few localities in Europe and in North America are rich in such remains, and the number of species that have been described amounts to several thousands. Strangely enough, some of these fossil insects are very closely allied in form to species that are living at the present time, showing the extreme antiquity of many of our genera. One of the comparatively recent discoveries has been the fossil remains of a butterfly which Dr. Scudder, who has described it, declares to be very near to the African _Libythea labdaca_, which differs in certain minor anatomical respects from the American Libytheas which are figured in this work; and Dr. Scudder has therefore proposed a new generic name, _Dichora_, meaning "an inhabitant of two lands," which he applies to the African species because related to the extinct American butterfly. The strange discoveries, which have been made by palæontologists as to the huge character of many of the mammals, birds, and reptiles which at one time tenanted the globe, are paralleled by recent discoveries made in insect-bearing strata in France. M. Charles Brongniart of the Paris Museum is preparing an account of the collection which he has made at Commentry, and among the creatures which he proposes to figure is an insect which is regarded by Brongniart as one of the forerunners of our dragon-flies, which had an expanse of wing of two feet, a veritable giant in the insect world.