144 NYMPH ALID/E. 



Abdomen moderate-sized or large. 



Caterpillar long, generally cylindric, and more or less spined; not or rarely attenuated 



behind, and with the hinder extremity of the body generally obtuse. 

 Chrysalis elongate, generally more or less armed with angulated prominences; suspended 



by the tail only, hanging by the extremity of the body, and not girt across the middle. 



The insects of the present family may be regarded as the pre-eminent types of that great division of butterflies in 

 which the chrysalis is simply suspended by the tail, and not girt round the middle of the body by a slender skein of 

 silken thread, the fore legs, also, being imperfect and unfitted for walking. 



It is proper to observe that Mr. E. Doubleday had purposely delayed characterising the family until he had completed 

 his examination in detail of the genera which he had introduced into it. His death has unfortunately left the task to 

 me ; and now that a complete revision and elaborate investigation of the characters of all the genera, not only of the 

 Nymphalidai, but of the Ageronida;, Danaida;, Heliconida;, Acrreida;, Morphidse, Brassolida;, Satyridas, Eurytelidre, and 

 Libytheidie, has been made, I more strongly feel the conviction of the difficulty of drawing up characters of sufficient 

 importance to warrant the establishment of so many primary divisions. 



The Ageronida? (p. 81.) are indeed at once distinguished by the braced condition of the chrysalis, although the 

 characters of the imago are essentially Nymphalideous ; and the Danaida? (p. 84.) have the chrysalides very short, oval, 

 smooth, and contracted near the middle ; but the general characters of the imago are also Nymphalideous. The 

 Heliconidrc (p. 96.) are destitute of a deep groove along the anal margin to receive the abdomen, and the pupa is smooth. 

 The Acrajidaj (p. 137.) are still more nearly allied to the typical Nymphalidas ; but the second branch of the 

 postcostal vein is emitted beyond the discoidal cell. The ungues have a broad lobe at the base, and the anal margin of 

 the hind wings does not form a groove for the reception of the abdomen ; the larvae, on the other hand, are cylindrical 

 and spiny, and the chrysalis slender and angulated. As regards the succeeding families, Morplmte (p. 332.), 

 Brassolidaj (p. 350.), Satyrida; (p. 352.), Eurytelida: (p. 403.), and Libytheida? (p. 412.), I must refer to the 

 observations which I have made on these different groups, as well as those upon the genera Apatura, Nymphalis, 

 Amathusia, and Discophora. It would not, indeed, be difficult to draw up a table of these groups, which would have 

 a certain air of vraisemblance ; but I am satisfied that the characters which would necessarily be employed in such a 

 table would be to a great extent artificial or trivial ones. 



As regards the genera introduced in the following pages into this family, some of the earlier, as Eueides, Colamis, 

 and Eresia, in their elongated wings approach nearly the Heliconida; and Acraidas : the various groups of fritillary 

 butterflies represented in our Plates XXL, XXII., and XXIII., are especially distinguished by their very setose 

 palpi, thus differing from the majority, in which they are squamose. Others, as the genera Nymphalis, Apatura, &c, 

 have the body remarkably robust ; and in a few genera the hind wings are produced into tails, recalling the Papilionidaj 

 to mind. The larvaa of Apatura, Nymphalis, &c, differ so much from the cylindric spinose character of the more 

 decided types, as to have induced the removal of those genera to the Satyridre by writers who have considered meta- 

 morphosis as of primary importance ; and lastly, some of the terminal genera approach very closely to some of the 

 Morphidae. We thus perceive a certain progression amongst the genera, whilst there are as strong evidences of collateral 

 affinities, which can only be satisfactorily studied when the transformations of the exotic species are more extensively 

 known : and here I can but congratulate Lepidopterists on the fact, that Dr. Burmeister has, within the last few weeks, 

 returned from a zoological residence in Brazil, where he has effectively studied the metamorphoses of numerous 

 species, which he proposes shortly to publish. — J. 0. W. July, 1852.] 



