3054 THE JOINTED ANIMALS 



butterfly, although common in Southern Europe, North Africa, West Asia, and 

 Persia, is only very rarely taken in England. The larvae feed on leaves of the sloe, 

 apple, plum, and other orchard trees. The common swallowtail (P. machaon) 

 was formerly very abundant in the fen districts of England, but since these have 

 been drained it has become scarcer. The four wings are sulphur yellow, black at 

 their base, with black veins, and hinder pair of the same color, with a band of blue 

 toward the margin, and a red spot on the inner angle, close to where the tail springs. 

 The larva feeds on the common carrot. This species has a very wide range, occur- 

 ring in the Kashmir Himalayas. Of the royal swallowtail ( Tinopalpus imperialis} 

 from Sikhim, a figure is given in No. 2 from the top left-hand corner of the colored 

 plate. The females are less brilliantly colored than the males, and have a pair of 

 tails to each hind-wing. 



The whites, clouded yellows, orange tips, brimstones, etc. , represent the second 

 subfamily {Pierince} of this assemblage, in which there are no tails to the hind- 

 wings. One of the rarest British butterflies is the black-veined white (Aporia 

 cratcegi} , shown in all stages of development in the illustration on the preceding 

 page. Its caterpillar feeds on the leaves of the blackthorn and other bushes. Of a 

 foreign representative of the group, the black-tailed sulphur (Dercas verhuelli) , an 

 illustration is given in the colored plate, No. 2 from the lower left corner. It is 

 nearly allied to the common brimstone butterfly {Rhodocera r/iamnt), so abundant 

 in spring in English lanes and hedgerows. 



THE SKIPPERS Family 



This family differs from all the others in the broad, thick head; the hind-tibia 

 (with some few exceptions) being armed with two pair of spurs. There are 

 hundreds of species belonging to this interesting family, the majority being 

 indigenous to South America. Many are distinguished by their powerful build, 

 brilliant colors, and long-tailed hind-wings. The European species are all small, 

 and more or less sombre colored, averaging about an inch across the wings. In 

 the puss-tailed skipper (Goniurus catillus} of Brazil, the front wings are brown on 

 the upper side, with five or six pale yellow spots; and the hind- wing also brown, 

 and ending in long, broad flat tails, quite as long as the hind-wing itself. 

 The antennae are strongly hooked at their apex. Telegonus alardus from Venezuela 

 has large wings, two inches across, brown, shot at their base with blue and green, 

 but only very slight tail-like prominences on the hinder wings. To Pamphila 

 and the following genera belong all the small, quick-flying butterflies, known 

 as the skippers, properly so called. When at rest many of these insects raise 

 the upper wings, leaving the lower ones horizontal, a habit not unknown among 

 butterflies of other families. The Lul worth skipper (P. adczon) is a rare, or rather 

 local, small brown skipper, confined in England to a few spots along the south 

 coast. Among others are P. silvanus, the large skipper, P. linea, the small skip- 

 per, and P. lineola, the scarce small skipper lately added to the British list. The 

 dingy skipper belongs to another genus (Nisoniades*), as does the chequered skipper 



