THE FMIILY HESPERIDAE. 1371 



In tlie Hesperidi, the fore wing of the male is always or almost always 

 provided with a costal fold where a sort of silky down is concealed ; this 

 feature is often very inconspicuous ; in the Pamphilidi, on the other hand, 

 the male is generally furnished with a discal patch of peculiar scales cross- 

 ing the median interspaces of the fore wings, usually in an oblique direc- 

 tion ; but sometimes the wing of the male is as simple as that of the 

 female. In the male Hesperidi again, the posterior extremity of the ali- 

 mentary canal is protected beneath by a corneous sheath, which extends 

 beyond the centrum or body of the upper pair of abdominal appendages, 

 sometimes nearly to the extremity of the appendages, carrying the vent 

 beyond the centrum ; while in the Pamphilidi, the extremity of the canal 

 is not protected by any extruded sheath, but opens at the very base of the 

 inferior wall of the centrum. 



In the Hesperidi, the prevailing color of the butterflies is dark brown, 

 marked with white or translucent angular spots ; the antennae generally 

 have a long club roundly bent or with a sinuous lateral ciu"ve ; in the 

 Pamphilidi the prevailing tints of the wings are tawny and black, mai'ked 

 also, but often feebly, with pale, sometimes vitreous spots ; the antennae 

 are provided with a stout club, which generally tapers rapidly and termi- 

 nates in a slender prolongation, recurved at about a right angle ; but in a 

 few genera the crook is very slight, or wholly wanting. 



The body of the Hesperidi is proportionally stouter than in the Pam- 

 pliilidi and their flight is generally swifter and more direct, although in 

 some genera the movement is unusually slow. In the higher Hesperidi, 

 when the insect is at rest, all the wings are held equally erect ; in the 

 lower groups, the wings are either perfectly or almost perfectly expanded, 

 or else they present the inequality of position characteristic of the Pam- 

 philidi, where the hind wings are usually horizontal or partially raised, 

 while the fore wings are vertical, or oblique. 



The earlier stages seem to present no peculiar distinctions, if we except 

 the eggs ; in the Hesperidi these are always distinctly ribbed vertically, as 

 well as cross-lined, and are almost always about as tall as broad ; 

 while in the Pamphilidi the eggs are smooth and pretty regularly 

 hemispherical, usually much broader than high ; in some of the highest, the 

 eggs are faintly ribbed vertically. The caterpillars of Hesperidi generally 

 feed upon leguminous plants, or, if not, upon other angiospenns, andlive in 

 horizontal nests made of leaves ; the Pamphilidi feed mostly on Gramineae, 

 or other endogenous plants, and generally construct vertical nests among 

 the blades. 



This division of the family was proposed by me in 1874 (Bull. BuflF. 

 800. nat. sc, i : 195-196), and has since received a certain amount of sup- 

 port, some writers accepting the arrangement though not adopting the 

 divisions. Mabille in his arrangement of the Hesperidae of the Bruxelles 

 Museum hae even gone further and subdivided each of these tribes into 



