BUTTERFLIES. 163 



west coast of Africa. It measures four inches in expanse, and is 

 of a bluish black, with the head and the tip of the abdomen scarlet. 



Pyrrhopyga Versicolor, Latr., is a representative of a beautiful 

 South American genus of Hesperlidce ; it is black, with red and 

 yellow markings. 



The extensive genus Pamphila, Fabr., includes a great number 

 of brown and tawny species of moderate size, many of which 

 much resemble our Large Skipper (P. Sylvanus, Linn.). The 

 oblique patch of brown scales which will be noticed on the fore 

 wings of this species is met with in all the species of this genus, 

 but only in the males. 



The genus Hesperia, Fabr., includes a number of small, white- 

 spotted species, very similar to our own Grizzled Skipper {H. Malvce, 

 Linn.), a common insect in woods. The species of Erynnis, 

 Schrank, several of which are found on the Continent, may he 

 distinguished from Hesperia by their slightly dentated wings. 

 Erynnis is remarkable, too, as being the only European genus in 

 which the small apical transparent sj^ots appear. 



Heteropterus Morpheus, Pall., one of the largest European Hes- 

 periidce, is brown, with one or two yellow spots near the tip ; the 

 under surface of the hind wings is yellow, and is marked with 

 several white spots surrounded with black. 



Among the more remarkable South American species we may 

 mention Pythonides Cerialis, Cram., a small brown species, with the 

 under surface of the hind wings blue ; and several species of the 

 genera Achlyodes and Antigonus, Hiibn., and Helias, Fabr., which 

 are very dingy, brown insects, and look more like moths than 

 butterflies. 



SECTION IT. — Heterocera, or Moths. 



Antennae variously formed, but very rarely terminating in a 

 club ; fore and hind wings often linked together by a bristle at 

 the base ; flight generally crepuscular or nocturnal. 



The number of known moths far exceeds that of the butterflies. 

 Four or five times as many species of the former are known as of 

 the latter ; but they have been far less assiduously collected and 

 studied, and as yet we have no reliable classification of the group, 

 for all recent attempts made hitherto in this direction have been 

 only partial and tentative ; and there is much diff'erence of opinion 

 as to the real affinities of many groups. Many of the families of 



