2 EHOPALOCEEA. 



in the male ; the tubular pit at the distal end seems to be always present. We have 

 made use, in a subsidiary sense, of the difference in the length of the terminal joint in 

 the sexes ; but the gradation between different species in this respect is so complete, 

 that the character is not available for any higher division. 



The eyes.— In both sections of the family of which we are treating the eyes are in 

 all cases more or less hairy. In a majority of cases the hairs are numerous and very 

 distinct ; but in others they are much less plainly visible and more sparsely distributed, 

 and the extent of their presence does not furnish any satisfactory points for classi- 

 fication. 



The frontal scales. — The head between the eyes is clothed with scales ; as a rule, those 

 in the upper portion are directed downwards until we come close to the base of the 

 palpi, where their direction is reversed. With the flattened scales, narrow hair-like 

 scales are more or less freely intermingled. Certain species depart from this rule — the 

 hair-like scales in some wholly disappearing ; in others the upward direction of the 

 scales prevails throughout the space between the eyes. We have used these divergencies 

 in our classification, giving it, we believe, thereby a natural aspect. 



The legs. — The front legs throughout this family present, as a rule, very little diver- 

 sity. In the male the tarsal joints are all fused into one piece, the claws are absent, 

 but the under surface is furnished with strong spines, which at the proximal end are 

 oblique, but towards the distal end become more transverse, the terminal spines 

 standing at right angles to the axis of the tarsus. The trochanter is attached to the 

 end of the coxa, except in the Old- World genus Curetis, where the coxa projects slightly 

 beyond the trochanter, somewhat as in the family Erycinidse. In the genus Theclopsis, 

 described below, we have a singular departure from the usual structure of the male 

 front leg, every joint being complete, and the terminal joint furnished with claws and 

 the usual appendages of a perfect foot. So unusual a divergence from the ordinary 

 type surprises us not a little, the outward resemblance of the species to the ordinary 

 type of Thecla being complete. Still we cannot but suppose that similar structures 

 remain to be discovered when more extensive researches are made. We have not 

 noticed any characters in the other legs of the male, nor in any of those of the female, 

 to help us in our classification. 



The shape of the wings. — So far as Thecla is concerned, the shape of the wings is 

 profoundly modified in the various species ; a stronger contrast than exists between the 

 primaries of T. damo and T. syncellus is hardly to be found elsewhere in the Eho- 

 palocera. But not only does T. damo vary individually in this respect, but every 

 intermediate gradation is to be found in the genus ; moreover, as is so often the case in 

 other families, the males have more pointed wings than the females. Eegarding the 

 secondaries, the shape of the anal angle, the extent to which it is produced, and the 

 development of the anal lobe seem to us to afford tangible grounds for division ; but we 

 do not profess to be satisfied with the system we have adopted, the exceptions being 



