IV. 

 FAMILY HESPERIDAE. 



SKIPPERS. 



Plebeii iirbieoliip Linn^. Gerst.; Hesperidina Herr.-Schaeff. ; Hcs- 



Uibicolae Fabr. ; Urbicoles Walck. periiiia Plotz. 



Rustioi Herbst. Astyci Hiibuer. 



Hesperiae Lam.; Hesperides Latr. ; Hesperi- Anopluriform stirpsHorsfield. 



dae Leach; Hesperiaedcs Billb. ; Hespeiidi Involuti Boisdiival. 



Boisd.; Hesperitcs Newm. ; Hesperiidae Microptfires Rarabur. 



Westw.; Hesperiatica Grav. ; Hesperioidae Celantcs Newman. 



■Wallengr. ; Hesperii Luc. ; Hesperiadae Quadriealearati Guen^e. 



Swift Bedouins of the pathless air, 

 Finding rich plunder everywhere. 



H. H. — My House not made with Hands, 



Before thee stands this fair Hesperides, 

 With golden fruit, but dangerous to be touch'd. 



Shakespeare.— Perfcies. 



Imago. Of medium or small size, usually robust. Head very large, and especially 

 very broad. Front quite full, at least twice as broad as high, occupying only the 

 uppermost part of the anterior portion of the head and less than half of the summit, 

 the lower outer angles docked a little, separated from the occiput by a slender furrow. 

 Vertex largely developed at the expense of the other parts but not protuberant, occupy- 

 ing more than half the summit and very broad, encroaching on the occiput, which is 

 less developed than usual ; tongue inserted opposite the middle of the eyes or even 

 higher; eyes prominent, always naked, usually overhung by a curving pencil of bristly 

 hairs springing from just outside the base of the antennae, the cornea occupying 

 almost the entire ocellar globe ; antennae widely separated, — by from two to four times 

 the width of their base, — not infringing on the eyes, the base consisting of two joints, 

 forming together a nearly hemispherical foundation for the stalk, which is scarcely a 

 fourth as broad as the base, its first joint, or the third of the club, many times longer 

 than the next or than broad, the club almost invariably elongated, its apical joints 

 diminishing rapidly in size and almost always forming a more or less reversed crook. 

 Labial palpi very stout .and compact, the first and second joints tumid, the apical far 

 slenderer and usually small or linear, porrect. while the others hug the face and are 

 densely scaled in an angular, generally trigonate setting. 



Prothoracic lobes pretty small, strongly appresscd, lamellate. Thorax stout, the 

 upper surface somewhat arched. Middle of front of mesoscutellum projecting for- 

 ward rectangularly between the sides of the mesoscuta, its sides also thrust forward 

 below, its rounded, tumid posterior margin completely overshadowing the small meta- 

 scutellum, which is formed of a whoUy vertical, triangular, appressed plate : metascuta 

 large, triangular, tumid, facing altogether later.ally and scarcely seen from above; all 

 the sutures deeply impressed, and the metathorax conspicuously separated from the 

 mesothorax. 



