480 



GEOGRAPHICAL ZOOLOGY. 



[part IV. 



Family 16.— HESPEEID^. (52 Genera (?) 1,200 Species.) 



General Distribution. 



The Hesperidse, or Skippers, are an immense group of mostly 

 small obscurely coloured butterflies, universally distributed, and 

 of wliich hosts of species still remain to be discovered and 

 described. As the grouping of these into genera is not yet 

 satisfactorily accomplished, only the more extensive and best 

 known groups will be here noticed. Pamphila and Hesperia 

 are universally distributed ; Nisoniades seems to be only absent 

 from the Australian region. The Neotropical region is pre- 

 eminently rich in Hesperidffi, 33 genera being found there, of 

 which 20 are peculiar to it; the Australian region has 12 

 genera, only 1 {Euschemon) being peculiar; the Oriental has 18, 

 with 3 peculiar ; the Ethiopian, 13, with 3 peculiar ; the Palse- 

 arctic 6, with 1 {Erynnis) almost peculiar, a species occurring 

 in Mexico ; the Nearctic 9, with none peculiar, 4 being found 

 also in the Neotropical region, 2 in the Palajarctic, and the rest 

 being of wide distribution. Many new genera have, however, 

 been recently described in the United States, but it is impos- 

 sible yet to determine how many, if any, of these are peculiar. 

 More than 100 species of the family are included in Mr. 

 Edwards' " Synopsis of North American Butterflies," — a very 

 large number considering that Europe possesses only about 30. 



