LEPIDOPTERA. 243 



when at rest, and there are others in which they are all elevated. 

 Notwithstanding this difference in the position of the wings, 

 the Ilespcrians all have certain characters in common, by 

 which they are readily distinguished from other butterliies. 

 Their bodies are short and thick, with a large head, and very 

 prominent eyes; the feelers are short, almost square at the 

 end, and thicldy clothed with hairs, which give them a clumsy 

 appearance ; the antenna; are short, situated at a considerable 

 distance from each other, and in most of these insects, with 

 the knob at the end either curved like a hook, or ending with 

 a little point bent to one side; the legs are six in number, and 

 the four hinder shanks are armed with two pairs of spurs. 

 Their caterpillars are somewhat spindle-shaped, or cylindrical 

 in the middle, and tapering at each extremity, without spines, 

 and generally naked or merely downy, with a very large head 

 and a small neck. They are solitary in their habits, and many 

 of them conceal themselves within folded leaves like the cater- 

 pillars of the thistle and nettle butterflies ( Cynthia Cardid and 

 Atalanta), and undergo their transformations within an enve- 

 lope of leaves or of fragments of stubble gathered together 

 with silken threads. Their chrysalids are generally conical or 

 tapering at one end, and rounded, or more rarely pointed, at the 

 other, never angular or ornamented with golden spots, but most 

 often covered with a bluish white powder or bloom. They are 

 mostly fastened by the tail and a few transverse threads, within 

 some folded leaves, which are connected together by a loose 

 internal web of threads, forming a kind of imperfect cocoon. 



In the skippers, which Dr. Boisduval arranges under the 

 name of Eudatnus, the knobs of the antennas are very long, 

 gradually taper to a point, and are suddenly bent like a hook 

 in the middle; the front edge of the fore wings, in the males, 

 is doubled over; the hind wings are often tailed, or are fur- 

 nished with a little projection on the hinder angle ; the fringes 

 are spotted; and all the wings are raised when at rest. 



Eudamus Tityrus. F. Tityrus skipper. 



"Wings brown; first pair with a transverse semitransparent 

 band across the middle, and a few spots towards the tip, of a 



