jjg BRITISH BUTTERFLIES 



Fab. Swainson Zool. 111., vol. 1, pi. 33). The antcniu-e are wide apart at the base, and are often terminated in 

 a very strono- houk ; the labial palpi have the terminal joint very small ; the spiral tongue (or maxill;e) is very 

 long, and the discoidal cell of the hind wings is not closed. 



Tlie caterpillars, of which, however, but few are known, are cylindrical, without spines, with the anterior 

 segments narrowed, and the head very large, which thus appears to be borne upon a footstalk ; the hind part is 

 always obtuse. These larvse * roll up leaves, in which they construct a very slender silken cocoon, wherein they 

 are transformed to chrysalides, which are entire and without angular prominences. 



Poey, in his Centurie des Lepidopteres de Cuba, jil. 4, and Swainson, in his Zoological Illustrations, vol. 1 ; 

 Abbot and Smith, Reaumur, StoU, Hiibner, &c., have represented the transformations of various species. The 

 chrysalis is generally smooth, but occasionally angulated, of a lengthened form, and attached at one end as well 

 as girt round the middle, the transformation being effected in the rolled-u]3 leaf which served the caterjiillar as 

 its abode. 



The species are of comparatively small size, and of obscure colours ; but many are ornamented with 

 pellucid spots ; and others have the hind wings furnished with long tails. The body is short, very robust, and 

 their fliidit is accordimdy very strong, rapid, and so peculiar that they have obtained the name of skippers, — 

 indicative of their singular short, jerking kind of flight. They also frequently settle on flowers, leaves, or branches, 

 as well as upon the ground, with which their dull colours well associate. 



H. Tages (according to Dr. Abbot, Linn. Trans, vol. 5, p. 276) flies early in the morning ; its flight 

 being extremely short, and very near the 'ground. Mr. Curtis mentions the curious circumstance, that old 

 specimens, whilst alive, frequently lose one or both of their palpi, an accident he had only observed amongst the 

 Pyralidaj. 



The relations of these butterflies with other insects are very interesting. Latreille united in the same group 

 a singular exotic genus, Urania, which is nearly related to the Ilesperi-sphingides. Mr. Swainson, indeed, states 

 that their palpable affin'iti) to the hwick-nioths has induced almost every writer to place them as the connecting link 

 between the diurnal and crepuscular Lepidoptera ; but such is not the case ; it is with the Ilesperi-sphingides 

 that they are nearest allied, their relationship with the hawk-moths being very slight. They have .another 

 relation with the Tortricidte, a family of small moths, founded merely upon the habit which is exhibited by the 

 caterpillars of both groups of rolling wp the leaves of plants, and which, in the Tortricidie, becomes a practical 

 source of annoyance in many instances. These relations are self-evident ; but another has recently been pointed 

 out, which appears to me to be so far-fetched and ridiculous as to merit only silence, were it not that it forms 

 part of a system which is asserted to be all-natural, and which must supersede all others hitherto or hereafter 

 to be promulgated. "The Natural An-angement of Insects" of Mr. Swainson furnishes us (p. 205) with a test 

 of the relative position in nature of the tribes of the Coleoptera, founded upon the corresponding position of the 

 families of the diui-ual Le])idoptera. The Ilesperiidre are thus made to represent the Malacoderm-bectles, because 

 the skin of the larvre of the former is so thin that the caterpillars are obliged to defend themselves by the artificial 



* " The larva; of the Hcsperiida; are so stiildngly Jislinguislifd from those of tlic Polvomraatida?, and the only one known of the Erycinidse, 

 that it isrciilly surprisini; 1h>w entomologists still continue to arrange them in the same group." — Swainson, Hist, of Insects, p. !i7. Nothing more 

 completely proves the ignorance of this writer of the works of modern entomological writers, hy tlie majority of whom Hesiieria is constituted 

 into a separate family. 



