SuTafamily Il.-NEMBOBIllT^, Bates. (Plate XXIV). 



Nemeohiince, Bates, Journ. Linn. Soc, Zoology, vol. ix, pp. 370, 4'2 (1867, 1868) ; id., Distant, Rhopi 

 Malay., p. 186 (1883) ; £-r:vt/«i^^, Westwood, Gen. Diurn. Lep., vol. ii, p. 41S (.-i-^S^); Erycimiue, Moore, 

 Lep. Cey., vol. i, p. 63 (1881). 



" Body, generally slender. Insects of small size. Head, small, not or scarcely tufted 

 in front. Ey^s, almost always naked. Antenme, generally short and slender, occasionally 

 furnished with short scaly hairs at the ends of the joints. Palpi, generally extremely small 

 and slender, scarcely advanced in front of the face as seen from above ; the last joint nearly 

 naked. JF/;/^"-.f, variable in form, colour, and markings, but not [seldom?] ornamented with 

 ocellated spots ; generally of large size, in proportion to the size of the body. FOREWING, 

 generally with only three branches to the subcostal ncrvure [always four in the Indian genera 

 excluding the terminal portion] ; the first and second arising before the extremity of the 

 discoidal cell, and the third far beyond the cell ; the upper disco-cellular nervule obliterated ; the 

 «//..^...././«/nervule arising at or near the origin of the second subcostal nervule; discotdal 

 «// closed by very slender middle and lower disco-cellular nervules, only visible on denuding the 

 Winers of its scales. HiNuwiNG, very variable in form ; the discoidal cell closed by very slender 

 upper and lower disco-cellular nervules ; abdominal margin forming a slight gutter for the 

 reception of the abdomen. Forelegs, small and slender; those of the male smaller than 

 those of the female, brush-like ; the tarsal portion forming an exarticulale mass, destitute 

 of claws at the tip. Of the female longer, slender, scaly ; tarsus articulated, with the 

 joints longer and more distinct than in the Nymphalincz and Satynna. Hindlegs, slender, 

 scaly ; spurs short ; terminal claws very minute, scarcely exserted." 



"Larva short (but scarcely ouisciform*), with tufts of short hairs, or lateral fleshy 

 appendages; the segment behind the head in some species furnished with a pair of erect 

 spines. PUPA short, not angulated, setose, attached by a thread across the body; obtuse at 



each extremity." , . ^ r it • 1 



-This is an extensive subfamily of delicately-formed butterflies, chiefly found in Tropical 

 America, although some of the aberrant forms are natives of Africa and Asia, and one even 

 inhabits Europe. They are of small size, and extremely varied in their forms, representa- 

 tives of many of the remarkable forms of other families occurring amongst the species of 

 the present subfamily. Thus, some of them resemble the tailed species of Papdwmuce and 

 A/;vi./.«.^; others the elongated-vvinged^.//..«//«^; others the blue and copper-coloured 

 species of Lyccenid^ ; and some the dusky and spotted Hesperiid^, Stiicturally these 

 insects are distinguished from the preceding by the more delicate form of their bodies, 

 the more varied style of their markings, and the short contracted caterpillars and chrysalides, 

 the latter being girt across the body. The forewing appears generally to possess only three 

 branches to the subcostal nervure ; the antenna are very slender, and the palpi very short, 

 although in a few species they are almost as long as in the Libythmme." (Westzvood, 1. c.) 



Mr Dohertyt states that the egg of the subfamily Ncmeobiiiuj: is " smooth, prickly or 

 radiate with minute flattened ribs, not so high as wide, opaque, dome-shaped," and that it 

 probably shov. s an affinity with the Papilionid.t and Hcsperiida-, and he goes on (p. 1 10) to define 

 it more particularly as follows :-" Egg not so high as wide, smooth, granulate, prickly or hairy, 

 neither reticulate nor ra diate in the few genera examined by me." He places the Erycmida ; 

 • Onisciform, shaped like a wood-louse, from onlsius, a wood-louse. 

 t Journ. A. S. B., vol. Iv, pt 2, p. io3 (iSS6). 



39 



