268 BUTTERFLIES 



tening the sides in place by silken threads, and later bur- 

 row into the stem and root, often making a tunnel a foot 

 or more deep. Here the caterpillars remain until full 

 grown. They are then nearly four inches long and half 

 an inch in diameter. They now pupate in the top of 

 their tunnel and in due season emerge as adults. 



THE COMMON SKIPPERS 



Family Hesperiidae 



The Skippers are the least developed of the butterflies. 

 They show their close relationship to the moths both by 

 their structure and their habits. The larvae make slight 

 cocoons before changing to chrysalids, and these chrysa- 

 lids are so rounded that they suggest the pupae of moths 

 rather than those of butterflies. The common name — 

 Skippers — is due to the habit of the butterflies — a jerky, 

 skipping flight as they wing their erratic way from flower 

 to flower. 



In North America the Skipper family includes nearly 

 two hundred species grouped in about forty genera. From 

 this point of view it is the largest family of our butterflies, 

 but on account of the small size and limited range of most 

 of the species it has by no means the general importance 

 of such families as the Nymphs, the Swallow-tails, or the 

 Pierids. 



The Skippers are remarkable for the uniformity of 

 structure in each stage of existence. The butterflies have 

 small wings and large bodies. The broad head bears 

 large eyes without hairs, but with a tuft of curving bristles 

 overhanging each. The antennae are hooked at the end 



