RHOPALOCERA MALAYANA. 



Older LEPIDOPTERA, 



Suborder EHOPALOCERA. 



llhopi'locti-fn, Boisil. Spec. Geu. LepicL, i. p. 102 (183G). 



This suborder includes the Butterflies as distinguished from the Moths, and is indicated 

 by several characters which are common, but not invariable. The antennae are more or less 

 clubbed or thickened at the apex, except in the family Hesperidce, when they are generally 

 hooked. The wings in repose are folded vertically over the back, thus exposing the whole of 

 their under surface ; but exceptions to this rule also occur, as in the case of the well-known 

 Ageronia feronia, Linn., a butterfly which is somewhat abundant in the orange groves of Brazil, 

 and whose habits have been recorded by Mr. Darwin and other naturalists and travellers.* As 

 a rule, also, these insects are diurnal in their flight, though a few are crepuscular in habit. 

 However, the totality of these characters apply to the group, and the Ehopalocera may 

 therefore, with such reservations, be described as possessing more or less clubbed antennae, 

 in flight diurnal, and in repose having the wings vertically folded above the back. 



The proper arrangement and classiflcation of the Rliopahccra long absorbed the attention 

 of Lepidopteral systematists, and as a resultant many rival and somewhat artificial systems 

 were promulgated, all, however, more or less based on thorough and exhaustive examination. 

 In this way facts slowly accumulated, and these, with a clear estimation of the important 

 natural affinities afforded by the form of the anterior legs, together with the development 

 theory in the hands of Mr. Bates, supplied the rest. We now possess a good natural 

 classification which is almost universally followed, and which, with some slight modifications, 

 will be used in this work. It represents the transition from a butterfly, whose atrial nature 

 is shown by possessing only four ambulatory feet, with its pupa suspended by the tail to 

 a branch or other substance, through gradual and approximating stages, towards the moths, 

 which have always six perfect legs, and whose pupae are so frequently subterranean. Other 

 systems of classification have been proposed, notably and almost concurrently with the 

 above, by Herrich-Schaffer, t and since by Guenee, :;: Scudder, § Constant Bar, || and 



* In the Vam. Hesperidce the wings in repose are sometimes folded vertically; other species rest with the wings 

 expanded horizontally ; frequently the anterior wings are raised vertically, whilst the posterior ones remain in a horizontal 

 position, bee A. K. Wallace, ' Zoologist,' vol. xi., p. 3884 (1853). 



I Con-esp.-Blatt Zool. -mineral. Ver. Eegensb. (1864). 



;[ Statistique Scientiflque du Departement d'Em-e-et-Loire, Lepidopti-res. Chartres, 1875. 



§ Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc, vi., p. 69 (1877). || Ann. Sue. Eut. France, Ser. V., t. viii., p. fi (18781. 



March 31, 1882. " 



