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The Crescent-Spots

This group includes some of the smaller nymphs; they are distinguished as follows: the club of the antennæ is broad and distinct; and is marked beneath, as in the fritillaries, with a single elevated line or with none. The palpi are slender, compact, the last segment from one-third to one-half as long as the middle segment. The color of the wings in one of our species is black with an outer marginal row of red spots, but it is usually fulvous, with the front wings broadly margined, especially at the apex, with black.

This is a large group, nearly sixty species occurring in North America. But nearly all of these are restricted to the far West; only five have been found in the Atlantic States, and one of these is rare. Our four common species can be separated by the following table :

A. Apex of the front wings produced, so that the outer margin is about as long as the inner margin; color black with a row of red spots next the outer margin, and two or more rows of yellow spots on outer half of wings. (E. phaeton), P. 125.