ABOUT CATERPILLARS 201 



have alluded, but the explanation here is less obvi- 

 ous, since it is a characteristic only of certain 

 groups, and even here is not invariable ; for in the 

 caterpillar of Feniseca, one of the Lycaeninae, the 

 eighth abdominal spiracle is quite on a level with 

 those in advance of it, just as it is in the bulk of 

 butterfly caterpillars. The only reason for this 

 elevated position in these cases would seem to be 

 the particular form of the termination of the body, 

 for in all the Lycaeninae, excepting Feniseca, and 

 in all the Hesperidae in which this occurs, we find 

 a flattened subonisciform shape, one which, indeed, 

 throws the spiracles of all the abdominal segments 

 a little higher relatively to the base of the body 

 than is common among caterpillars in general. 



Besides the spines, filaments, bristles, etc., which 

 form so noticeable and common a feature among 

 butterfly caterpillars, there is another still more 

 common and of a very similar nature ; that is, the 

 short hairs or pile with which the body is provided, 

 always supported by little papillae and distributed 

 with great regularity, in which a transverse is 

 more often seen than a longitudinal direction, 

 sometimes dispersed indiscriminately all over the 

 body. When a transverse arrangement obtains, it 

 is usually related closely to the sections into which 



