120 Mr. Gray on Papilionida. [Aug. 



there is a great deal of truth in this remark ; for it is too much 

 the fashion to abuse without consulting them. The fact is 

 indeed fully verified in the butterflies which Linneus divides 

 into five groups, the Equites, Helicordi, Danai, Nymphales, and 

 the Phebeji, which could only have taken place by his secretly 

 observing their habits, according to his own maxim, for his cha- 

 racters are only taken from their size, colour, and the difference 

 of the edge of the wing. Latreille has divided this family from 

 their manners and habits into exactly equivalent groups, only 

 placing the Danai between the Equites and the Heliconii, and 

 placing the second section of the Plebeji in a family by them- 

 selves under the names of Hesperiadce. 



I have observed that whenever a group formed a good linear 

 series, the two ends would meet, and thus form a circle, by 

 which fact I have convinced several persons who have been 

 disposed to doubt the truth of the circular disposition of 

 nature. Thus we find that several series forms circles which their 

 authors never appeared to have the slightest idea of. It is so 

 with the slight alteration proposed by Latreille with regard to the 

 Papilionida; ; and the Linnean position of the Heliconii in them 

 is similar to his position of the Cetacea in Mammalia; it prevented 

 the continuance of the series, and thus obscured their natural 

 disposition. 



In the Equites and the Danai, the larvae are long and cylindri- 

 cal, and the chrysalis is angular, and inclosed in a kind of case, 

 or suspended by a transverse thread ; in the former of these, the 

 lower pair of wings are generally extended at their hinder angles 

 into a tail, in the males at least, and in both they are furnished 

 with a connecting nerve. From the latter of these groups by means 

 of some of the Pontia of Fabricius as P. sinapis, we pass to the 

 Heliconii and the Nymphales, in both of which the chrysales are 

 suspended without any case by their hinder extremity, and their 

 front pair of legs are folded up, in the males at least, so as to be 

 useless in walking, and the lower pair of wings, like the Danai, 

 are usually destitute of tails and connecting nerve. From these 

 last, by means of the genus Libithea of Fabricius, we pass to the 

 Plebeji, where the larva and pupa are short, and the latter is 

 inclosed in a case, and where the lower wings are destitute of 

 any connecting nerve, but are often provided with several tails ; 

 from these we may return to the Equites, for this last group has 

 the cased pupa and the tailed wings of that tribe, and some of 

 them appear to have a very great affinity to it. 



The Hesperiadce has very great affinity to the Plebeji, of which 

 Linneus regarded them as a section, but I am inclined to consi- 

 der them as the osculant group between the Papilionidce and the 

 Spingidce, excluding from it the genus Urania, which appears to 

 be the osculant on the other side between the Papilionidce and 

 the day-flying PhalcEiiidcc, but adding to the Hesperiadce the 

 genera Castnia of Latreille, and Agarista of Leach. 



