TIIK FAMILY NYMl'lIALIDAE. lU 



General characteristics of the family. This most extensive as 

 well ns hii;]i('st thiiiily of iiuttcrtlie.s i.s :-prea(l over every portion of the 

 <j:lobe ; althouiili its inaximiiin of development is reached in the tropics, its 

 rehitive nnmerical snperiority is most evident in temperate regions, and es- 

 pecially the nortli tempei'ate zone of the old world where its numbers nearly 

 equal all other huttertiies combined. Althouuh it has long been placed in 

 a sul)()rdinate position, it is now g'enerally considered by most })hilosophical 

 entomologists to hold the highest rank among Lepidoptera, — a position 

 which was long ago given it by some of the early students of butterflies, 

 but one whicli could not make head-way against the Linnean traditions. 

 The atrophy of the front legs of both sexes, found only in this family and 

 j)ossessed by every member of it excepting the insignificant and aberrant 

 group at its foot, and the suspension of the chrysalis by the tail only, first 

 recognized by Dalman and which suggested to Boisduval the name Sus- 

 pensi long in use, are suflficient by themselves to prove that to this group 

 must be assigned the highest rank. For in the passage of the indi^■idual 

 from the larval stage to the perfect form the segment bearing the front 

 legs has in all Lepidoptera become constantly reduced in size ; and the 

 atrophy of the legs borne by this segment, found in some groups and not 

 in others, must be considered an evidence that a difference characteristic of 

 chano;e from a lower to a hio-hcr i>;rade of life is also a characteristic of the 

 passage from a lower to a higher grade of structure. Moreover, as I have 

 already pointed out in discussing the general classification of butterflies, the 

 chrysalids ^^'hich hang by their tails only show, in the straight ventral sur- 

 face of the abdomen of the vast majority of them, that they are descended 

 from butterflies which in their chrysalis stage were also girt about the 

 middle. 



Although other families contain butterflies which vie with the Xympha- 

 lidac in lustrous beauty, this largest family contains upon the whole by far 

 the greatest number and variety of striking forms, whether we consider 

 the butterfly, the egg, the caterpillar or the chrysalis. Moreover, they are 

 the forms which are most commonly seen and noticed by those who have 

 but a popular interest in natural history, for they are the butterflies par 

 excellence of the temperate zone, of the region where civilization has most 

 flourished and the praises of nature have been most sounded by the poets. 

 It is from the transformation of this group of butterflies that ancient my- 

 thology has drawn its ins[)iration. The very name chrysalis, the "golden 

 thins:" of the Greeks, was drawn from observation of this familv, where 

 alone the pupa often assumes a gilded hue. And it is not strange that 

 they should have so observed them, for of all butterflies these are the 

 most spritely and vivacious, the most audacious, most fond of propinquity 

 to man and his cultivations, and endowed with most varied psychological 

 traits ; thouLrh at the ^ame time the family contains some forms with the 



