30.5 



Family XV. HESPEKIDiE. 



HESPEEiDiE Leach. 



Plebeii Urbicol/e Linnanis. 



IIesperia Latreille. 



Papiliones gentiles Astyci nuhner. 



Insects of small, or moderate, size. 

 Body generally very robust : colours mostly obscure. 



Head often very broad, generally with a tuft of hairs at the base of the antennae. 

 Eyes large and very prominent; always naked. 



Antennce wide apart at the base ; often terminated by a thick club, or a strong curved hook. 

 Labial Palpi short, broad, closely compressed against the face ; densely squamosc. Terminal joint often very 



minute, naked, and conical. 

 Spiral Tongue (Maxillaj) very long. 

 Wings rather small in size, and often marked with vitreous spots. Fore Wings always with four branches to the 

 postcostal vein ; all arising before the extremity of the discoidal cell, the fourth extending to the tip of the 

 wing, and the extremity of the postcostal itself below the tip. The upper discoidal vein arising just beyond 

 the base of the fourth branch. Disco-cellular veins slender. The first branch of the median vein often arising 

 nearer the base of the wing than usual. 

 Hind Wi7igs with the anal portion of the outer margin often produced into a lobe or tail. Anal margin folded. 

 Costal vein forming, with the base of the postcostal, a small cell at the base of the wing, emitting a short spur, 

 which is directed towards the base of the wing. The branch of the postcostal is united with the third branch 

 of the median by two very slender disco-cellular veins, straight, or sometimes considerably angulated (more or 

 less imperfectly closing the discoidal cell), from which arises a very slender, and often indistinct, discoidal 

 vein ; the space at the margin of the wing, between the extremity of the postcostal vein and of the third 

 branch of the median vein, being scarcely longer than that between the extremity of the second and third 

 branches of the median vein. 

 Legs. Fore Legs perfect. Tibia; short, generally with a horny flattened spur on the inside beyond the middle ; 

 generally concealed by long hairs. 

 Middle Legs with a pair of spurs at the tip of the tibia?. 



Hi?id Legs generally with a pair of spurs below the middle, and another pair at the tip. Tarsi long, with rows 

 of short spines beneath. Ungues and their appendages minute ; the claws much bent, broad at the base, witli 

 a deep notch in the middle. Paronychia bifid ; the outer divisions very slender and setose ; the inner small 

 and much broader. 



Caterpillar moderately long, cylindrical, fleshy, not spined ; with a large head and narrow neck ; generally 



living in roUed-up leaves. 

 Chrysalis entire, generally without angular prominences; attached by the tail, and girt round the nnddle, 



sometimes enclosed in a slight silken cocoon among the rolled leaves. 



This is a family of butterflies, generally of small size aiul obscure colours, very numerous in species; and wliich, from their peculiar 

 structure, constitute a distinct division amongst the Diurnal Lepidoptcra, to wliich Di. Boisduval has applied the name of Involuti, 

 from the circumstance of the caterpillars generally enclosing themselves in a rolled-u[) leaf, and thus, as well as in several other respects, 

 approaching the nocturnal species. The chief of these characters consists in the possession of a pair of spurs in the middle of the hind 



