318 LEPIDOPTERA. 



Hesperia WamsiUta. Wamsutta Skipper. (Fig. 141.) 



Dark brown above ; fore wings with a broken row of 

 small tawny spots towards the tip, and in the males a larp- 

 tawny patch covering the whole of the fore part of the wings 

 Kg. 141. fr m tne base to the middle, and an 



oblique curved black line behind it ; 

 hind wings with a small tawny dot 

 before the middle, and an indented 

 tawny band, or row of contiguous 

 unequal spots ; under side of the fore wings light brown, 

 and with larger yellow spots than on the other side, hind 

 wings light brown, with two large irregular bright yellow 

 spots connected in the middle and covering nearly the 

 whole surface. 



Expands from T 9 ff of an inch to nearly an inch. 

 This species hardly differs from Peck's skipper, except 

 in being uniformly smaller. It is a very common kind, 

 and is found in meadows in the latter part of summer, 

 particularly through the month of August. Wamsutta, 

 whose name I have given it, was the oldest son of the 

 Sachem Massasoit. 



There are a few more skippers in my collection, which 

 were taken in Massachusetts, but some of them are not suffi- 

 ciently perfect to be described, and of the others I have 

 only one sex. 



II. HAWK- MOTHS. (Sphinges.*) 



Linnaeus was led to give the name of Sphinx to the 

 insects in his second group of the Lepidoptera, from a 

 fancied resemblance that some of their caterpillars, when at 

 iv-t, have to the Sphinx of the Egyptians. The attitude 

 of these caterpillars is indeed very remarkable. Supporting 

 themselves by their four or six hind legs, they elevate the 



* See page 262. 



