82 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES 
legs being fit for walking ; the hind tibie with only one pair of spurs ; the antenna not distinctly hooked at the 
tip; the last joint of the palpi is small and naked; the anal edge of the hind wings slightly embraces the 
abdomen ; the discoidal cell of the hind wings is apparently closed by a slender vein. The caterpillars bear a 
very considerable resemblance to wood-lice, the head being retractile, and the feet very minute ; the body is oval 
and depressed ; the chrysalis is short, obtuse at each end, and girt round the middle as well as attached by 
the tail. 
The family comprises several distinct groups, namely, such as are known to collectors under the names of 
blues, coppers, and hair-streak butterflies, respectively distinguished in our indigenous species by their varied tints 
of blue, fiery-red, or dusky, with slender lines on the under side of the wings.. In many of the exotic species, 
however, these colours run beyond the limits of their respective groups, thus forming a series. The majority 
have the entire under surface of the wing, or at least the anal angle, ornamented with beautiful eye-like spots of 
various colours. Some of the exotic species are amongst the most lovely of the butterfly tribes. In many of 
these, the hind wings are produced into very long tails. Their flight is varied, some delighting to sail over the 
tops of oaks and other trees, on which they have passed their preparatory states, whilst others are feeble and slow 
in their motions, flying over low grass and herbage. 
Dr. Horsfield has investigated the transformations of many of these insects, in his Lepidoptera Javanica, the 
larvee of which vary very considerably in their form, some exhibiting a much slighter resemblance to wood-lice 
than others ; some are very rough on the upper surface of the body ; and that of Thecla Xenophon, a Javanese 
species, has several rows of fascicles of hairs. They have hitherto been observed to feed only upon the leaves of 
different plants and trees in the larva state; but a beautiful Indian species (Theela Isocrates) resides within the 
fruit of the pomegranate—several (seven or eight) being found within one fruit, in which, after consuming the 
interior, they assume the pupa state, having first eaten as many holes as there are insects through the rind of the 
fruit, and carefully attached its foot-stalk to the branch by a coating of silk, in order to prevent its falling. 
(Westwood, in Trans. Entomological Society, vol. ii. pl. 1.) 
I have already (in p. 35) referred to the arrangements which have been proposed by various authors, in order 
to bring this family, with its girt chrysalis, into connexion with the Papilionide, in which the chrysalis is also 
girt. Weare not sufficiently advanced in the knowledge of exotic Lepidoptera to determine the soundness of 
these different views. 
GENUS XXI. 
THECLA, Fasricius. 

This genus, as characterised by our English species, is at once known from the two following by the very 
gradually formed club to the antennz, the short terminal joint of the palpi, the hairy eyes*, the short triangular 
fore wings and hind wings generally furnished with a short tail and strongly scalloped near the anal angles, and 
by the under surface of the wings being generally ornamented with one or two delicate lines of a pale colour on a 

* Mr. Curtis, Brit. Ent. pl. 264, represents the eyes of this genus as naked, although he describes them correctly. 
