FAMILY V 

 HESPERIID^E (THE SKIPPERS) 



" Bedouins of the pathless air."— H. H. 



Butterfly. — The butterflies belonging to this family are gen- 

 erally quite small, with stout bodies, the thorax strongly devel- 

 oped in order to accommodate the muscles of flight. They are 

 exceedingly rapid in their movements. Both sexes possess six feet 

 adapted to walking, and the tibiae of the hind feet, with few ex- 

 ceptions, have spurs. The lower radial vein of the hind wing in 

 many of the genera is lacking, or is merely indicated by a fold in 

 the wing. There is great variety in the form as well as in the 

 coloration of the wings. 



Egg. — The eggs, so far as we are acquainted with them, may 

 be said to be, almost without exception, more or less hemispher- 

 ical, with the flat section of the hemisphere serving as the base. 

 They are sometimes smooth, but not infrequently ornamented 

 with raised longitudinal ridges and cross-lines, the ornamentation 

 in some cases being very beautiful and curious. 



Caterpillar. — The caterpillars are cylindrical, smooth, tapering 

 forward and backward from the middle, and generally possess 

 large globular heads. They commonly undergo transformation 

 into chrysalids which have an anal hook, or cremaster, in a loose 

 cocoon woven of a few strands of silk. 



This family, the study of which presents more difficulties than 

 are presented by any other family of butterflies, is not very well 

 developed in the Palaearctic Region, but finds its most enormous 

 development in the Nearctic and Neotropical Regions. It is also 

 very strongly developed in the Indo-Malayan and Ethiopian 

 Regions. There are, at the present time, in the neighborhood 

 of two thousand species belonging to this family which have been 

 named and described. 



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