BUTTERFLIES. 7 



RHOPALOCERA. 



Papilio, Linn. 



Papilio and Hesperia, Fah. 



pAPiLioNES, Hiihri, 



Diurna, Latr. 



RoPALocERA, Dum. 



Rhopalocera, Boisd. 



AcHALiNOPTERA, Blanch. 



Imago. — Antennce more or less clubbed or thickened at 

 the tip ; haustelliim always well-developed. Thorax ovate, 

 pilose. Wings variable in outline : forewings more or less 

 approaching a triangular, hindwings a circular, form. Legs 

 rather slender ; femora often densely hairy, tihice spined. 

 Abdomen more or less elongate, occasionally sub-ovate, 

 usually flattened laterally. 



Larva. — Smooth, hairy, or spiny ; pro-legs ten. 



Pupa. — Cylindrical, or angulated, tapering to the tail : 

 when angulated, the head has one or two pointed projections. 

 Suspended by the tail ; often with an additional suspensory 

 band of silk about the middle of the body. 



Butterflies, the insects briefly characterised above, are, 

 taken as a group, the most splendid of all the annulose tribes. 

 They are easily distinguished from their near allies the Moths, 

 not only by the marked structural character of knobbed 

 antennae, but also from the fact of their wings being as 

 exquisitely ornamental on their under surface as on their 

 upper. Indeed, it is frequently the case that the underside 

 is far more brilliantly and distinctly coloured and marked 

 than the upper surface ; while, in the Moths, the underside 

 is usually very dull, and with but a faint shadow, as it were, 

 of some of the principal upperside markings. In connection 

 with this peculiarity, it is worthy of note that Butterflies, 

 with very few exceptions, always, in repose, close the wings by 

 causing them to meet vertically above their back, leaving thus 

 the whole of the under surface exposed ; while Moths, on the 

 contrary, rest with the wings closed in a directly opposite 

 manner, keeping them deflected at a greater or less angle 

 with the body, so that the upper side is visible. Butterflies 

 are solely diurnal in their flight ; Moths are chiefly nocturnal, 

 but a large number are diurnal, and some fly both by day 

 and night. 



The Rhopalocera, though but a limited group when com- 

 pared with the Heterocera, are yet a tolerably numerous 

 division, — about 3,500 species being known to Science. 

 Every shade of colour, every variety of exquisite and intricate 



