♀.--Much like the male, but larger. Expanse, ♂, 1.35-1.50 inch; ♀, 1.50-1.75 inch.
This species is common in Texas. It is identical, as an examination of the type shows, with _M. bolli_, Edwards, and the latter name as a synonym falls into disuse.
(26) =Melitæa minuta=, Edwards, Plate XVII, Fig. 11, ♂, _under side_; Fig. 12, ♂ (The Smaller Checker-spot).
_Butterfly_, ♂.--This species is fulvous on the upper side, rather regularly banded with black lines. The veins are also black. The result is that the wings appear to be more regularly checkered than in any other species which is closely allied to this. The markings of the under side are white edged with black, and are shown very well in the plate, so that a lengthy description is unnecessary. Expanse, ♂, 1.25-1.35 inch; ♀, 1.50-1.60 inch.
The specific name, _minuta_, is not altogether appropriate. There are many smaller species of the genus. It is found rather commonly in Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico.
(27) =Melitæa arachne=, Edwards, Plate XVI, Fig. 22, ♀ (Arachne).
_Butterfly._--I have given in the plate a figure of a female bearing this name in the Edwards collection. It is remarkably pale on the upper side. There is a large series of types and paratypes in the collection, but all of them vary on the upper side of the wings in the intensity of the fulvous ground-color and the width of the black markings. Underneath they are absolutely like _M. minuta_. I think _M. arachne_ is without much doubt a synonym for _M. minuta_. The species varies very greatly. The types are from Colorado and western Texas. Expanse as in _M. minuta_.
(28) =Melitæa nympha=, Edwards, Plate XVI, Fig. 21, ♂ (Nympha).
_Butterfly._--This species differs from _M. minuta_ only in having the black markings darker and the outer median bands of spots on the upper side yellow. On the under side the pattern of the markings is exactly as in _M. minuta_. It seems to me to be a dark, aberrant form of _M. minuta_, but is very well marked, and constant in a large series of specimens, so that we cannot be sure until some one breeds these creatures from the egg. Expanse, the same as that of _M. minuta_.
In addition to the species of the genus _Melitæa_ illustrated in our plates there are a few others which are credited to our fauna, some of these correctly and some erroneously, and a number of so-called species have been described which are not true species, but varieties or aberrations.