THE FAMILY HESPERIDAE. 1369 



composed generally of leaves connected by silken bands and lined very 

 delicately with silk ; sometimes they make use of the nest in which they 

 have previously lived. Within this they are attached both by their hinder 

 extremity and by a sling for their body, the latter of which sometimes, 

 perhaps always, takes the form of the letter Y ; the same is s ometimes true 

 of the anal attachment in many cases, but the Y is often obscured by the 

 mass of additional silk used in the same region. This cocoon-like mode 

 of transformation, which is a strong proof of the affinity of these insects 

 to the lower Lepidoptera, occurs in the higher groups in only two or three 

 instances, confined to the two subfamilies of Papilionidae and has gained for 

 the present group the name of Involuti. According to Forsayeth (Trans, 

 ent. soc. Lond., 1884,387), " Pamphila mathias" makes no cocoon what- 

 ever, the chrysalids lying " along a blade of grass attached by a band across 

 thorax and also at taU." 



The butterflies are no less distinguished by their peculiar flight, which 

 is extremely rapid, varied and interrupted, terminating suddenly after a 

 short career and as suddenly resumed ; as Lang expresses it, it is hurried 

 and intermittent, never steady or sailing like that of other groups. 



They almost invariably delight in the hottest sunshine, and generally fre- 

 quent open meadows ; many of them rest with their wings oddly spread, the 

 front pair being more elevated than the hind pair, a feature which caused 

 the French naturalist Geoffroy to apply to them the name of estrophies, 

 while the vulgar English name, skipjiers, as aptly refers to their peculiar 

 flight. 



These insects, says Swainson, " have neither size nor brilliancy to 

 recommend them, while their long, abruptly hooked antennae give them 

 such an isolated character, that the family can never be mistaken." 



Nor are their distinguishing characters contlned to outward structure. Their flight 

 Is even more rapid than that of tlie Nymphalidae, and in the more typical species is 

 performed with such celerity that the eye can scarcely follow the Insect. They may, 

 Indeed, be compared to the . . . swallow tribe among birds . . . while their palpable 

 affinity to the hawk-moths has induced almost every writer to place them as the con- 

 necting link between the diurnal and crepuscular Lepidoptera . . . [They] are conspicu- 

 ous for the great thickness of their head and thorax, no less than for muscular strength : 

 many fly in the same manner as the common humming-bird hawk-moth of Europe, and 

 are most active during the morning and evening, resting with their wings erect; others 

 prefer the meridian lieat, and repose with all the four wings expanded; others, again, 

 are never seen to take nourishment, but are found in the forests, sheltered under leaves; 

 there is, in short, such a great diversity of habit in this family that it cannot be defined 

 in precise terms ; but in all, as showing their immediate connection to the hawk moths, 

 the eyes are remarkably large and prominent ; this affinity is further manifested by 

 the feet, palpi etc. (Hist, ins., 97, 99). 



Wallace, in speaking of the Hesperidae of the Amazons (Trans, ent. 

 soc. Lond., [2] ii : 263-4), well remarks that there are three distinct 



modes in which the wings are carried In repose : flrst, they are closed and carried erect 

 as In the typical butterflies ; second, the fore wings are elevated while the hind ones 



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