vi BUTTERFLIES 343 



It appears, therefore, at present that Hesperiidae, Papi- 

 lionidae, Pieridae, and the Nymphalo-Lycaenid complex are 

 naturally distinct. But in the following review of the families 

 and sub-families of butterflies, we shall, in accordance with the 

 views of the majority of Lepidopterists, treat the Lycaenidae 

 and Erycinidae as families distinct from both Nymphalidae and 

 Pieridae. 1 



The number of described species of butterflies is probably 

 about 13,000; but the list is at present far from complete; 

 forms of the largest size and most striking appearance being still 

 occasionally discovered. Forty years ago the number known 

 was not more than one-third or one-fourth of what it is at 

 present, and a crowd of novelties of the less conspicuous kinds is 

 brought to light every year. Hence it is not too much to antici- 

 pate that 30,000, or even 40,000 forms may be acquired if 

 entomologists continue' to seek them with the enthusiasm and 

 industry that have been manifested of late. On the other 

 hand, the species of Rhopalocera seem to be peculiarly liable to 

 dimorphic, to seasonal and to local variation ; so that it is 

 possible that ultimately the number of true species that is, 

 forms that do not breed together actually or by means of inter- 

 mediates, morphological or chronological may have to be con- 

 siderably reduced. 



In Britain we have a list of only sixty-eight native butter- 

 flies, and some even of these are things of the past, \vhile others 

 are only too certainly disappearing. New Zealand is still 

 poorer, possessing only eighteen ; and this number will prob- 

 ably be but little increased by future discoveries. South 

 America is the richest part of the world, and Wallace informs us 

 that 600 species of butterflies could, forty years ago, be found 

 in the environs of the city of Para. 



Fam. 1. Nymphalidae. The front pair of legs much reduced 

 in size in each sex, their tarsi in the male with but one joint, 



' The literature of butterflies has become extremely extensive. The following 

 works contain information as to general questions : 1, Scudder's Butterflies of Neio 

 England, a beautifully illustrated work completed in 1889, and replete with 

 interesting discussions. 2, Staudinger, Schatz and Rober, Exotischc Tag/alter, 

 in three folio volumes (Fiirth, 1884-1887), with illustrations of exotic butterflies 

 and a detailed sketch of their characters. 3, Enzio Renter, "Tiber die Palpen 

 der Rhopaloceren," in Acta Soc. Sci. Fenn. xxii. 1896, treating fully of classifica- 

 tion and phylogeny. 



