Genus Ageronia Hübner (the Calicoes)
Medium or moderately large-sized butterflies. Costal and subcostal fused near base; cells of both wings closed. Upper side of wings curiously marked with checkered spots, generally some shade of blue with white; under side with broad paler shades: white, yellow, or red. They are rapid fliers, alight on the trunks of trees head downward, wings expanded against the bark of the tree. When they fly they make a clicking sound with their wings. The manner in which this sound is produced is a mystery. Bates in his A Naturalist on the Amazons writes about it but gives no explanation. In my rambles in tropical forests I have heard it as the insects gyrated above my head, but I do not know how the sound is made.
There are about thirty species of the genus in tropical America, two of which are occasionally found in southern Texas.
(1) Ageronia feronia (Linnæus), Plate LVII, ♂ (The White-skirted Calico).
The ground-color of the under side is broadly white, while that of the other species in our fauna, A. fornax, is yellow. They may thus be easily told apart.