HESPERID^E. 85 



Wallengren's variety of this very curious butterfly appears to be a ? , in 

 which the hind-marginal dots are wanting.* Boisduval's description of the 

 $ coincides with the characters of the $ s that I have examined. 



Port Natal. Coll. Brit. Mus. 



" Bay of Port Natal. Ashanti." Boisd, 



" Querimba." Hpfr, 



FAMILY 9. HESPERID-3B. 



HESPERID^;, Leach (1815), Swains. , &c. 

 HESPERIID^E, Steph. 

 HESPERIDES, Latr. 

 HESPERII, Blanch., Chenu. 



IMAGO. Very robust in structure. Head broad (often as 

 wide as thorax) : proboscis very long ; eyes smooth ; palpi 

 thick, obtuse, very densely clothed with scales and short 

 hairs ; antenna with a wide space between them at their 

 origin, usually gradually incrassate, often terminating in a 

 slender hook, or with the club recurved or subangulated.f 

 Thorax long, thick and broad. Wings rather small. Fore- 

 wings long, often produced and pointed at apex : costa nearly 

 straight ; discoidal cell usually very long, sometimes closed. 

 Hind-wings short, truncate, often lobed (rarely tailed) at 

 anal angle : cell rather long, sometimes closed. Legs alike 

 in both sexes, fore-legs complete andjfi tted for walking ; tibiae 

 of hind-legs with two pairs of spurs, the additional pair being 

 about middle of the joint. Abdomen compressed, of variable 

 length. 



LARVA. Elongate, cylindrical, sometimes rather hairy : 

 head large, the segments next it much narrowed. 



PUPA. Attached by tail and silken band round middle; 

 sometimes in a silken cocoon within rolled-up leaves : usually 

 smooth, not angulated ; head with a more or less acute point. 



The HESPERID^E are allowed by authors to be of all the 

 Families of Butterflies the most nearly -allied to Moths, and 

 the group is consequently placed last in the series in the gene- 

 rally received arrangements of the Diurnal Lepidoptera. But, 

 strongly as the broad head, with its antennae inserted widely 

 apart, the somewhat heavily-made body, the loosely-scaled 

 and often horizontally-held wings, the two pairs of spurs 



* 1 have since seen a similar $ specimen from Natal, 

 t At base of each antenna, in several Genera, a slender dependent tuft 

 of haira, 



