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The butterfly guide

Chapter 24: Genus DIRCENNA Doubleday
By W. J. Holland
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Nature/Gardening/Animals

About This Book

A concise field manual for identifying common North American butterflies, presenting 295 colored figures that depict 255 species and varieties alongside succinct descriptions of wing patterns, sizes, ranges, and habits. The text opens with accessible explanations of butterfly anatomy, classification, and life history, then provides practical, field-oriented identification guidance, often illustrating only a single wing side or half when adequate. Emphasis is on clear visual comparison, terminology, and observation tips to assist naturalists and beginners in recognizing and distinguishing species across the United States and Canada.

Subfamily ITHOMIINÆ
(The Ithomiids).

Butterflies of moderate size, though a few species are quite large. Fore wings at least twice as long as wide; hind wings small and rounded, without tails. Abdomen produced beyond the margin of the hind wing. Wings more or less transparent. Antennæ long and very slender, with a slender club at end, naked. Fore legs greatly atrophied, especially in the males. Larvæ and chrysalids resembling those of the Euplœinæ, the chrysalids being short, cylindrical, and marked with metallic spots. The family, with the exception of the Australian genus, Hamadryas, is confined to the New World, in the tropics of which there are swarms of genera and species. Like the Euplœinæ they are “protected.” But two genera are reported from our territory.

Genus CERATINIA Fabricius

Distinguished from other allied genera by the strongly lobed costal margin of the hind wings in the male.

There are fifty species of this genus known from the American tropics, but only one occurs within the limits of the United States, and only in the extreme southwestern portion of our territory.

(1) Ceratinia lycaste (Fabricius), Plate III, Fig. 2, ♀ (Lycaste Butterfly).

This insect, which may easily be identified by the figure we give, is reported from southern California. The plate shows the variety, named negreta, which has a spot at the end of the cell of the hind wing instead of a black bar, as is the case in specimens from Panama. Expanse 2.1 to 2.25 inches. Wright does not include this species in his list of butterflies of the west coast.

Genus DIRCENNA Doubleday

PL. III

Medium-sized butterflies, with quite transparent wings. Abdomen not as long as in the preceding genus. Hind wing of male strongly bowed forward at middle, the costal vein tending to coalesce with the subcostal. Only one species occurs in our region. There are many species in the American tropics.

(1) Dircenna klugi (Hübner), Plate III, Fig. 1, ♂ (Klug’s Dircenna).

The wings are pale brown, narrowly margined with darker brown; the fore wings have a pale yellowish diagonal bar at the end of the cell, followed by two bands of similar spots, curving from the costa to the inner margin. Expanse 2.5 to 2.75 inches.

Habitat: Southern California and Mexico according to Reakirt. The citation of California by this authority may refer to Lower California. In recent years no specimens have been taken in Upper California. It may be that with the changes which have taken place in the development of the country the insect has become extinct about Los Angeles and San Diego, where Reakirt collected.