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.

Home › The Milkweed Butterflies › The Metal-Marks (Family Riodinid Ri-o-din'i-d)

The Metal-Marks (Family Riodinid Ri-o-din'i-d)

Family Riodinidæ (Ri-o-din'i-dæ) The metal-marks are small butterflies, which bear some resemblance to the gossamer-winged butterflies and were formerly classed with them. They are distinguished from the gossamerwinged butterflies by the presence of a humeral vein in the hind wings, and from them and all other butterflies by the presence of what appears to be a well-preserved costa of the hind wings. In some genera this costal vein is free at the tip and projects (Fig. 39).

Only twelve species are found in America, and nearly all of these are from the far West or Southwest. The two following species occur in the East.

2d A
2d A

C R3 R4+5 R2 M.

R M2 Sc M, Sc+R. Rs H 3d A Cu, Cu, 2d A M 1 M M3 Cu C 2d A FIG. 39. Venation of the wings of a Emesis zela.

Read next

← The Long-Beaks (Orange patch just beyond cell)The Small Metal-Mark →