PAPILIONIDiK. 



It is perhaps futile to attempt a natural arrangement of this 

 section of Lepidoptera, from the very scanty materials supplied by 

 these islands; but as an approximation to the truth is doubtless 

 better than positive confusion, I shall dispose my subjects in some 

 measure agreeably to the classification proposed by Mr. Swainson, 

 in the Philosophical Magazine for March last, as that is decidedly 

 the most efficient published arrangement of this group of insects 

 I have yet seen, and if my views of it be correct, the subordinate 

 divisions do not materially differ from the method in which the 

 indigenous species have been usually disposed : yet, as his principal 

 characters are drawn from the metamorphoses — which evidently 

 point out the most natural groups — I have not ventured to follow 

 him, as they are frequently unknown to the naturalist, and it is 

 my intention in this work to furnish the student with the means of 

 ascertaining the nomenclature and history of all our insects, by an 

 inspection of them in their final state ; I have consequently used 

 other characters for my primary divisions, and have considered those 

 which are drawn from the larva, or pupa, as subsidiary. 



Pedes antici hawd f apice abrupte uncinate : . . 4. HespER1Dj3E. 

 abbreviati: Antcnncc < 



(baud apice uncinate : . . . 1. Papilionid^e. 



Pedes antici T^lns f medio ores, bifidi: . . 2. NvsiPHALiDiE. 

 ininusve abbreviati : Ungues \ 



(_ minuti, simplices : . . 3. LYCiENiD^. 



Family I.— PAPILIONIDiE *. 



Antennw with a distinct club, varying in form and sometimes compressed, but 

 never hooked at the extremity ; legs in both sexes aU formed for walking, 

 and distinctly furnished with simple, or bifid, claws: hinder tibia: with 

 one pair of spurs at the tip only : hinder wings excised to aiUnit the free 

 motion of the abdomen, or grooved to receive it. Larva generally naked ; 

 pupa fastened by a transverse thread, or subfoliculated, angulated or smooth. 



• In the following account of the papilionaceous insects of Britain, all the 

 dubious species which have been introduced into our Fauna will be briefly 

 enumerated in their respective locations, with the authorities for their introduc- 

 tion so far as I have ascertained them ; and the characters of those genera of 

 which no truly indigenous species occur are printed in itaUcs in the tabular views. 



It is also requisite to apprize the student that the brief primary characters, 



by which the minor divisions arc separated in the tables, must be cautiously 

 emjiloyed, as in the conterminous groups of a natural scries they become so 

 gradually blended into each other, as to apply without nmch difficulty to cither- 



