Genus Libythea Fabricius (the Snout-butterflies)
Small butterflies, the palpi enormously produced in comparison with other butterflies. The fore wings are strongly excavated on the outer margin, and produced at the end of the lower radial. The hind wing is upwardly lobed at the base, excised before the outer angle, and the outer margin is somewhat scalloped. The egg is ovoid, nearly twice as high as wide, ribbed, every other rib being higher than the one beside it and increasing in height toward the top. The caterpillar has a small head, overarched by the anterior swollen segments; it lives upon the hackberry (Celtis). The chrysalis has the abdomen conical, the head pointed, with two raised ridges running from the head on either side to the middle of the first segment of the abdomen; between these ridges is a low tubercle.
There are numerous species found in all parts of the world, but only three occur within our limits. Of these we figure the one which is most widely distributed.
(1) Libythea bachmani Kirtland, Plate LXXVII, ♂ (The Common Snout-butterfly).
The figure we give will enable the student to immediately recognize the insect.
It ranges from New England and Ontario southward and westward over the whole country as far as Arizona and northern Mexico.