_Butterfly._--Butterflies of moderate size, with the fore wings greatly produced, the inner margin bowed out just beyond the base, and deeply excavated between this projection and the inner angle. The lower discocellular vein in the hind wings is apparently continuous with the median vein, and the lower radial vein being parallel with the median nervules, the median vein has in consequence the appearance of being four-branched. The submedian vein of the fore wings is forked at the base. The costal margin of the hind wings is clothed with tufted erect hairs in the male sex. The fore legs of the male are greatly atrophied, the tarsi and the tibia being fused and reduced to a small knob-like appendage. The fore legs of the female are also greatly reduced, but the tarsi and tibia are still recognizable as slender, thread-like organs.
[Illustration FIG. 80.--Neuration of the genus _Mechanitis_. The letters refer to the names of the veins. (See Fig 40.)] The caterpillars are smooth, cylindrical, ornamented with rows of short fleshy projections.
The chrysalids are short and stout, suspended, and marked with golden spots.
There are numerous species belonging to this genus, all natives of tropical America. The only species said to be found within the limits of the United States occurs, if at all, in southern California. It is, however, probably only found in the lower peninsula of California, which is Mexican territory. No examples from Upper California are known to the writer.
(1) =Mechanitis californica=, Reakirt, Plate VIII, Fig. 2, ♂ (The Californian Long-wing).
The original description given by Reakirt in the "Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Philadelphia," vol. v, p. 223, is as follows:
"Expanse, 2.45-2.56 inches. Fore wing above, brownish-black; a basal streak over the median nervure, and two rounded spots near the inner angle, orange-tawny; of these the outer is the largest, sometimes the inner is yellow, and sometimes both are nearly obsolete; a spot across the cell near its termination, much narrower than in _M. isthmia_, and in one example reduced to a mere dot on the median nervure; a more or less interrupted belt across the wing from the costa to near the middle of the outer margin, and an oblong subapical spot, yellow; in the specimen just mentioned there is an additional yellow spot below the medio-central veinlet.