How to Know the Butterflies

The Cornell classic that taught America to name what it saw: every eastern butterfly described from life, with its caterpillar, its food-plants, its habits — and how to pronounce its Latin.

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The Banded Elfin (Incisalia niphon In-ci-sa'li-a)

Incisalia niphon (In-ci-sa'li-a ni'phon) PLATE XXXV, FIG. 7, 8, 9 See description under the brown elfin above.

CATERPILLAR. - Slug-shaped; length a little more than half an inch. It has a little brown head; the downy body is green, with two lengthwise whitish stripes along each side. Food-plant.-Pine.

The banded elfin is dull dark brown above, but beneath, especially on the hind wings, it looks like an elfin checker-board made in varying shades of brown with white dividing lines here and there.

This butterfly is an active little creature and loves the open spaces in the pine woods. Its home is in the northeastern United States, and it has not been taken west of New York. It is singlebrooded, and the caterpillars require almost the entire season to mature.

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← The Hoary Elfin (Incisalia irus In-ci-sa'li-a)The Coral Hair-Streak →