HESPERID^. 285 



Wallengren's variety of this very curious butterfly appears to be a ? , ia 

 which the hind-inarginal dots are wanting.* Boi.>duval'8 description of the 

 ? coincides with the characters of the $ s that I have examined. 



Port Natal.— Coll. Brit. Mus. 



*• Bay of Port Natal. Ashanti."— Boisd. 



'* Querimba." — Hpfr. 



Family 9.— HESPERIDiE. 



HesperiDtE, Leach (1815), Swains., &c. 

 Hesperiid^, Steph. 

 Hesperides, Latr. 

 Hesperii, Blanch.y Chenu. 



Imago. — Very robust in structure. Head broad (often as 

 wide as thorax) : proboscis very long ; eyes smooth ; palpi 

 thick, obtuse, very densely clothed with scales and short 

 hairs ; antennce with a wide space hetioeen them at their 

 origin, usually gradually incrassate, often terminating in a 

 slender hook, or with the club recurved or subangulated.f 

 Thorax long, thick and broad. Wings rather small. Fore- 

 wings long, often produced and pointed at apex: costa nearly 

 straight ; discoidal cell usually very long, sometimes closed. 

 Hind-wings short, truncate, often lobed (rarely tailed) at 

 anal angle : cell rather long, sometimes closed. Legs alike 

 in both sexes, fore-legs complete andjfitted for walking : tibiae 

 of hind-legs with two pairs of spurs, the additional pair being 

 about middle of the joint. Abdomen compressed, of variable 

 length. 



Larva. — Elongate, cylindrical, sometimes rather hairy : 

 head large, the segments next it much narrowed. 



Pupa. — Attached by tail and silken band round middle ; 

 sometimes in a silken cocoon within roUed-up leaves : usually 

 smooth, not angulated ; head with a more or less acute point. 



The HesperiDzE are allowed by authors to be of all the 

 Families of Butterflies the most nearly -allied to Moths, and 

 the group is consequently placed last in the series in the gene- 

 rally received arrangements of the Diurnal Lepidoptera. But, 

 strongly as the broad head, with its antennae inserted widely 

 apart, the somewhat heavily-made body, the loosely-scaled 

 and often horizontally-held wings, the two pairs of spurs 



* 1 have since set^n a similar ? specimen from Natal, 

 t A' base of each antenna, in several Genera, a slender dependent tuft 

 oi hairs. 



