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 Zabulon Skipper

Atrytone zabulon (At-ry-to'ne zab'u-lon) PLATE XXXIX, FIG. 11, 12, 13 The two sexes of this skipper differ greatly in appearance, the male being chiefly yellow, the female black. In the male the upper surface of the wings is pale dull yellow, dusky at base, and with the margins, except the costal margin of the fore wings, bordered with blackish brown. There is a black bar at the end of cell R + M of the fore wings, but no brand. The lower surface of the wings is also largely yellow; the yellow central patch of the hind wings covers the greater part of the wing.

In the female the wings are dark blackish brown; the fore wings are crossed by a row of light spots, as shown in Fig. 12 of Plate XXXIX. On the lower surface the spots on the fore wings are larger than above; the hind wings are mottled with reddish brown, and have the outer third sprinkled with bluish scales.

Occurs throughout the eastern United States, except in the extreme South. Larva feeds on grass.

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