238 THE BUTTERFLIES OF NEW ENGLAND. 



All the legs were perfectly developed, the tibiae and tarsi spined below, 

 the latter also furnished with a pair of longer spines at the tip and middle 

 of all the legs ; the tarsi were longer than the tibia, the first joint as long 

 as all the others, and the last supplied at tip with claws and pad and 

 special hairs. 



In coloring and pattern they might have been divided into three general 

 types : first, those whose wings were uniformly dark brown, darker 

 above than below ; second, tliose of similar appearance, but more or less 

 enlivened in the middle witli tawny above and yellow below, and having, 

 besides, minute spots bare of scales near the centre of the wings, especially 

 of the front pair ; third, checkered species, black and white above, but 

 below pale and sometimes washed with dashes of brown and yellow. 

 When at rest, the wings were fully or almost fully expanded, and the 

 places on which they chose to alight were the upper surface of leaves or 

 the ground. Finally, the primeval butterfly was single-brooded and 

 Avintered in the chrysalis state. 



Let us next consider what modifications of this assumed ancestral type 

 exist at the present day, and what the relations of one tribe to another 

 tell of their relative age and importance. 



The fomily groups into which butterflies should be divided have been 

 variously given all the way from two to sixteen. As the structure of the 

 diff'erent stages becomes better known there is an increasing proof of the 

 intimate connection of many of the groups formerly believed very distinct ; 

 and it is generally conceded by the better class of recent writers that there 

 are only about half a dozen principal groups. My own study of their 

 structure and transformations leads me to divide them primarily into only 

 our families, namely : — 

 The Brush-footed butterflies, or Nymphalidae. 

 The Gossamer- winged butterflies, or Lycaenidae. 

 The Typical butterflies, or Papilionidae. 

 The Skippers, or Hesperidae. 



The family nature of the last group has never been questioned by any 

 who look upon the butterflies as composed of more than one family ; 

 indeed its distinction from the others is so marked that some have con- 

 sidered the remainder of the butterflies its equivalent in value; that is, 

 they divide all butterflies into only two families. Probably these skippers 

 were the first to separate from the common stock, and they certainly have 

 never developed to a high degree, since they still remain by far the lowest 

 of all, and are in many points more closely allied to some of the higher moths 

 than to any other butterflies. They are peculiar for their robust body, 

 broad head, such as we have given our archaic butterfly, hooked antennae, 

 which are widely separated at base, large eyes, the cornea of which occupies 

 the entire ocellar globe, and is overhung by a brush of curving unequal 



