Genus Pyrrhanæa Schatz
Medium-sized butterflies. Front wings falcate at apex; hind wings tailed at end of third median nervule. Costal margin of fore wing angulated at base, inner margin straight. Upper side of wings generally fulvous or red; lower side mottled and marked so as to resemble dried leaves. Egg spheroid, flattened at base, depressed on top, marked with a few rows of raised points about summit. Caterpillar with head globular, first segment behind it much smaller than head; body cylindrical tapering behind. Chrysalis short, stout, keeled on sides; cremaster globular at tip, and so arranged as to cause the chrysalis to hang at a slant.
This is a large genus characteristic of the American tropics. The larvæ feed on euphorbiaceous and lauraceous plants, after the third moult making hiding-places for themselves by rolling up leaves and tying them with silk. There are three species in the United States, two of which we figure.
(1) Pyrrhanæa andria (Scudder), Plate LV, ♂ (The Goatweed Butterfly).
Bright red above, margins dusky; on under side gray dusted with brown scales. Females marked by incomplete pale bands on the limbal area. Expanse ♂, 2.50; ♀, 3.00 inches. Larva feeds on Croton capitatum. Ranges from Illinois and Nebraska to Texas.
(2) Pyrrhanæa morrisoni (Edwards), Plate LVI, ♀ (Morrison’s Goatweed Butterfly).
More brilliantly and deeply red on upper side than preceding species. Both male and female have the wings with bands of lighter color on the limbal area, but these are not solid, as in the female of P. andria, but made up of spots, as shown in the figure. Expanse 2.25-2.50 inches.
Found in Arizona and Mexico.
The genus which is here engaging our attention is one which is wonderfully well represented in the New World, where it takes the place of the magnificent insects belonging to the genus Charaxes of the tropics of the Old World. On the under side they closely mimic dried leaves. This assimilation to the color of dead leaves is protective.