HESPEKID.^. 261 



Hcspcridce are nearly related to any particular lleterocerous group or 

 family. Tlie connection so long supposed — from the resemblance of 

 the antennae and general fades — to exist between them and the 

 singular moths of the Castnia group has been proved illusory, as no 

 wider disparity in the whole Order can be found than that shown by 

 the simple almost unbrauched condition of the neuration of the wings 

 in the Hcspcridcc and its highly complicated arrangement in Castnia and 

 allied forms/ Throughout the Hespcridce the peculiar neuration is so 

 remarkably constant, that it aflbrds little or no means for discriminat- 

 ing genera ; and even Speyer, who has published ^ by far the most 

 thorough investigation on this portion of the structure of the family 

 that has yet appeared, is constrained to regard as the most momentous 

 point for observation so slight a matter as the position of the lower 

 radial nervule in the fore- wings, viz., whether it originates exactly mid- 

 way between the upper radial and third median nervules, or nearer to 

 one or the other of them. 



In strong contrast to the constancy of the wing-neuration is the 

 irregularity with which the numerous secondary sexual characters pre- 

 sented by the $ Hcs2Kridai are distributed. Tliese conspicuous badges, 

 consisting of a long costal or discal groove or fold, lined with peculiarly 

 formed scales in the fore- wings ; a felt-like patch of scales in the same 

 wings ; a tuft or pencil of very long stiff hairs on the tibi^ of the hind 

 pair of legs, or on the coxee of the front pair ; a very dense stiff fringe 

 of hairs and scales on the tibifB and part of the tarsi of the first pair of 

 legs ; a great enlargement of the first joint of the tarsi of the hind 

 pair, or a pair of long curved appendages attached to the thorax pos- 

 teriorly on the under side ; — occur or are totally wanting in species 

 which are so intimately related as to be unquestionably congeneric. 



The characters of most value in this extremely difficult group 

 (apart from the rarely-occurring absence of such salient ones as the 

 additional pair of spurs on the hind-tibise, the solitary spur on the fore- 

 tibiae, or the extra-antenual tufts on the head), are those presented by 

 the clavation of the antennae, and by the terminal joint of the palpi. 

 Beyond these, one has to depend on such general features as the rela- 

 tive robustness and length of the body, the size and shape of the wings, 

 and the particular pattern of markings and system of colouring. 



It is most probable that when this entire Family has been as 

 thoroughly studied as the few Palaearctic members of it have been by 

 Speyer,^ a large proportion of the very numerous proposed and tacitly 

 accepted genera will be no longer recognised ; for in no group of the 

 Lepidoptera has there been more random and careless creation of 

 generic names. The most moderate of recent writers on the Hcspcrida% 

 Herrich-Schiiffer, tabulated 34 genera in 1869; Mr. W. F. Kirby's 



^ See Westwood, Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond., Second Serie?, Zool., i. p. 155, &c., pi. 2S-33 



(1877). 



- Stctt. Ent. Zcit., 1879, p. 477, &c. 2 Stdt. Ent. Zcit., 1S7S and 1879. 



