35-2 



Family X. SATYRIDtE. 



Satyei Lat7-eiUe, Hist. Gen. Lis. xiv. p. 97. (1805.) 



Satteides Boisduval, Sp. Gen. Lep. p. 166. 



SATYRiDiE Swainson (pars); E. Doubleday, List Lep. Brit. Mus. p. 119. 



Sattkidi Stejyhens, Cat. Brit. Lep. Biit. Mus. p. 6. 



HiPPAECHiA Fahriciiis., Syst. Lep. (lllig. Mag. vi. 1807.) 



Hipparchiides Westicood, Introd. to Class. Mod. Lep. Gen. Synopsis, p. 88. 



Maniola Schrank. 



Erebia Dalman. 



Driades Hiibner. 



Body generally small and weak. 

 Head small. 



Eyes naked, or hairy. 



Antenna} generally short and slender, variable in the form of the club. 



Labial Palpi very much compressed, more or less elongated and erect, and clothed in front with long porrected hairs. 

 Wings generally large, but weak in structure, and generally ocellated on the under side. 



Fore Wijigs often with tlie veins at the base swollen. Tlie postcostal vein with its branches free ; the first and 



second emitted before the anterior extremity of the discoidal cell, which is generally long, and alwa}'s closed. 

 Hind Wings -with the discoidal cell closed, and not preceded by a prediscoidal cell. The anal margin forming a 



gutter for the reception of the abdomen. Upper surface not, or very rarely, fasciculated. 

 Fore Legs very small. Those of the males brush-shaped, with exarticulate tarsi ; and those of the females rather 

 longer, more scaly, and with the tarsi articulated. Claws of the hind legs often bifid. 



Larva attenuated at the extremity of the bodj', and almost pisciform, tomentose, terminated by two more 

 or less prominent anal points ; the head rounded, sometimes emarginate or bifid, or sometimes surmounted 

 by two spines. Generally graminivorous. 



Chrysalis short, cylindric, not or scarcely angulated, and not gilt ; suspended by the tail. 



This family, or rather subfamily, as I should prefer to regai'd it, differs from the two preceding groups in the elongated very pilose 

 palpi, the want of a prediscoidal cell to the hind wings, and the general weakness of the insects ; whilst tlie structure of the larva 

 separates it from the Brassulida;, but approximates it to the ]\Ior[)liida;, and some of the latter genera of Nymjdialida;. This family is 

 of considerable extent, and almost universally dispersed over the surface of the globe ; the number of tlie European species is, in fact, 

 considerably greater than one third of the whole of the Diurnal Lepidoptera of Europe. They are generally of a small or but moderate 

 size, and of obscure colours ; but the under surface of the wings is in almost all the species ornamented with eye-like spots. The 

 discoidal cell of all the wings is always closed, whilst the base of one or more of tiie longitudinal veins of the fore wings is dilated and 

 vesiculose ; indeed, Godart even states that every species of the group, both exotic and indigenous, has the first two veins of the fore 

 wings in this condition. The club of the antenna; is generally curved, slender, and spindle-shaped, but it is very distinct in some 

 species; S. Circe and Hcrmione, for examj)le, two species otherwise closely allied, differ from each other in this resjiccl. The 

 Caterpillars, however, offer the most characteristic mark of distinction, being attenuated behind ; the body terminated in a fork or two 

 small points, destitute of spines, but generally pubescent ; the head more or less rounded, sometimes heart-shaped, and sometimes armed 

 with two spines. The Chrysalis is simple or but very slightly angulated, and almost destitute of prominent tubercles. The Caterpillars 

 almost exclusively feed upon grasses ; and hence it is that the species are so widely dispersed in their geographical distribution. It is 

 but rarely that these Caterpillars are met with by entomologists, on account of their peculiar habit of feeding only during the night; 

 and some species, according to ^I. Marloy {Ann. Soc. Ent. France, 1838), retire to the earth to undergo their Chrysalis state: those of 

 S. Circe, Briseis, Semele, and Fidia forming large oval cocoons, composed of grains of earth mixed with a little silk. Those of S. 

 Mcera, Janira, and others, however, suspend themselves by the tail, as usual with almost all butterflies which have the fore legs 

 imperfect. 



M. Duponehel, in a memoir published in the Annals of the Ftenrh Eiitoindhr/ical Socicti/ for 1833, has divided the European species 

 of this group (which he regarded as forming but a single genus) into the nine following sections, named from the habits of the Perfect 

 Insects, and characterised by the variations in the dilated condition of the base of the veins of the wings, and the form of the 

 antennaj. His sections are : 



1. Graminicoles. S. Lachesis, Galathea, Clotho, &c. (Genus Arge.) 



2. Ericicoles. S. Aetata, Bryce, Phajdra. 



3. RupicoLES. S. Fidia, Fauna, Circe, Briseis, Semele, Anthelea, &c. 



4. Herbicoi.es. S. Eudora, Janira, Clymene, Tithonus, &c. 



