72 SAMUEL H. SCUDDER. 



the end of the median ncrvurc of the fore wings, show that no family 

 distinction should be drawn, as has usually been done, between these 

 two groups.* 



In the form of the head, the highest family agrees very well with 

 the l^apilionides, although as a rule it is considerably narrower, stand- 

 ing in this respect midway between the two middle families; the inner 

 edge of the eye is entire; the prothoracic lobes are moderately large 

 and tumid, and the uervule, attached to the end of the median nervure 

 of the fore wing in the lowest butterflies, is here transferred to the 

 sub-costal nervure, becoming a second inferior sub-costal nervule, which 

 does not exist as such in any other family. Its presence in all the 

 members of this family warrants the restoration, by Bates, of the 

 ancient limits of this group, which, of recent years, has been torn by 

 systematists into so many fragments. It does not however confirm his 

 removal of the Libytheans to the next lower family, although in one 

 of the most prominent and important features of the Nymphales — 

 the atrophy, though still unequal, of the fore legs of both sexes — the 

 Libytheans show their close relationship to the Erycinids. since the 

 legs of their females are normal. 



The eggs of the brush-footed butterflies are always either reticulate 

 or ribbed, seldom greatly higher than broad, never smooth, but occa- 

 sionally so heavily reticulated as rather to be termed pitted ; in these 

 cases however, the division walls are extremely thin and never, as in 

 the Lyca^nids, coarse. The caterpillars are pilose, spinous or armed 

 with filaments or tubercles. The chrysalids never have a perfectly 

 even contour, but show at least some rounded or angulate projections; 

 and usually the head is armed, more or less conspicuously, with a pair 

 of projecting tubercles; they are invariably suspended by the tail 

 alone, or rarely are not suspended at all. 



By means of the diagram given on the next page^j" I have attempted 

 to exhibit the apparent relation of the difi"erent groups to each other; 

 the position of the main branches and their divisions is supposed to 

 indicate, on the basis of existing affinities, the relative time at which 



* Cf. my paper on the structure and transformations of Eumceus Atala. Mem. 

 Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist. II, 431 seq. (1875). 



f Explanation of Diagra>[. — A, Brush-footed Butterflies, Nymphales. B, Gos- 

 samer-winged Butterflies, Rurales. C, Typical Butterflies, Papilionides. D, Skip- 

 pers, Z7r6icote. 1, Satyrs, Prae^ores. 2, Danaids, i^cs^iui. 3, Helicon ians, ITeZt- 

 conii, 4, Nymphs, Najades. 5, Snout Butterflies, Hypati. 6, Erycinids, Vesta- 

 les. 7, Lycaenids, P/e6eu. 8, Pierids, Z>anat. 9, Swallow-tails, ^^wi'ies. 10, Par- 

 nassians, Parnasii. 11, Large Skippers, ITes^eritfes. 12, Small Skippers, Astyci. 

 13, Castnioides. 



