774 THE BUTTERFLIES OF NEW ENGLAND. 



hooks at its extreniitv ami on tlio sides; ventral snrface of the body tlattened but 

 more or less gently arcuate. Either suspended stiffly by the tail or in addition, 

 and nearly always, attached round the middle by a median .sirth ; clothed more or less 

 sparsely with pile and also with long, very infrequent, bristle-like hairs. 



Distribution and general characteristics. This lesser of the two 

 eubfivmilies of Lycaenidac is ahnost exclusively restricted to the tropics of 

 Aincricii. Not one-twentieth of the known species occur outside these 

 limits, and they are for the most part confined to the tropics of the Old 

 World. A single species is found in Europe, and a few extend north of 

 the tropics in America; only one reaches the borders of New England. 

 No species and probably no genera are common to the Old and the New 

 Worlds, and the larger of the two tribes into which the subfamily is 

 divided, and to wdiich all the United States species belong, is wholly un- 

 known in the Old ^\'orld . 



In the buttcrtiies of this group the anterior tarsi of the males are more 

 atroi)hied tlian in the following subfamily, "consisting," says Bates, "of 

 only one or two joints and spineless." Messrs. Godman and Salvin, how- 

 ever, in their review of the mass of material collected for their Iliologia 

 Ccntrali Americana, find that in some instances the males have the full 

 number of joints and also the claws ; and they even find some diversity in 

 opposite legs of the same individual ; but this does not invalidate the state- 

 ment as one of nearly universal apjilication. These same authors, more- 

 over, have found an additional distinction in these same male fore legs, in 

 that the trochanter is inserted at varying distances from the end of the 

 coxa, leaving a long projecting portion of the coxa beyond the trochanter. 

 The palpi are usually very short, but show considerable variability, and in 

 some are of considerable length. All the species in the adult state, says 

 Bates, 



are of smaller size and weaker structure than the average of the Nymphalidae, and 

 are distini^uished Ijy the tenuity and fragility of the wing-membranes. . . . With very 

 few exceptions, the species are confined to the shades of the great forest which 

 covers the lower levels of nearly the whole of this vast region. I collected, myself, 

 370 species on the banks of the Amazons, or three-flfths of the total number of known 

 species. The family is remarkable for the wonderful diversity of form and colouring 

 which it presents; aud the habits of the species are almost equally varied. Some 

 are of very slow, lazy flight, whilst others are excessively rapid in their movements. 

 It may be stated, however, as a universal rule, that their flight is short, never exhib- 

 iting the sustained motion which is characteristic of the Nymphalidae, Satyridae, and 

 other superior families of butterflies. A large number of genera have the habit of 

 settling on the underside of leaves near the ground, extending their wings flat on the 

 leaf. In many genera, on the contrary, the position of the wings in repose is vertical; 

 and a few species settle on the upper surface of leaves with the wings half elevated. 

 As these diflereuces are constant in several large genera, it might be thought that they 

 ofTered a clue to a natural classification of the family — an object of difficult attain- 

 ment, if we employ structural characters only ; but there are too many exceptions to 

 the rule to render it of any use for this purpose. (Journ. Linn. sec. Lond., Zool., 

 Ix:3fi9.) 



