744 



HESPERANTHA HETEROMERA. 



the fish in producing those periodical famines in some 

 localities which drive the fish to others. But the free 

 ocean, when once arrived at, is common to all ; and 

 the margin of the great central eddy, and of its banks, 

 to which these fishes retire, are not subject to the 

 same vicissitudes as the bays and estuaries. It is 

 highly probable that there are also seasonal move- 

 ments of great part of the food of these fishes, sea- 

 ward at one time, and shoreward at another. No 

 doubt many of even the very smallest Crustacea carry 

 their eggs attached to the under part of the body, 

 and thus continue in the free water all the year with- 

 out, in all probability, ever reaching the bottom. 

 There are other creatures, however, upon which the 

 herrings feed, which do deposit their eggs upon some 

 substance, such as rocks, and more especially sea- 

 weed. There is a limit of depth, and want of solar 

 action, beyond which no seaweed will grow, as is 

 found by the bottom, which the deep sea lead always 

 shows, being ruins, such as mud and broken shells ; 

 and we cannot suppose that any living creature will 

 place its eggs 'beyond this limit of all vegetable 

 action. 



Even those small and floating Crustacea that hatch 

 their eggs on their own bodies, cannot so hatch them 

 in the depths, but must come both near the surface 

 and near the land, in order to enjoy the light and 

 heat of the sun, the reflected and radiated heat of the 

 bottom, and the stimulus of the atmospheric air. All 

 these come to their maximum toward the end of 

 summer, and thus the parent little creatures come 

 shoreward at that time, and during the winter. At 

 the same time the broods of the former year, having 

 enjoyed the action of the sun and air near the shore 

 during the summer season, begin to retreat in the 

 winter ; and thus, as these seasonal fishes approach 

 the land, they are led by one part of their food, and 

 they recul another. 



The system is so beautifully contrived, too, that 

 though all the productions of our seas are seasonal, 

 their seasons are not all the same. Thus they come 

 in succession to support each other, and with that 

 surplus which is so very valuable to man, when he is 

 industrious enougn to avail himself of it. The subject 

 is one upon which it vs not easy to get accurate in- 

 formation, and it has been, for this reason, neglected. 

 But still there is no subject in nature more interesting 

 to a maritime people than the seasonal movements 

 and actions of the sea, of which surface-fishes, and, 

 above all, the herring family, are in a great measure 

 the keys. 



HESPERANTHA (Ker). A genus of Cape bulbs, 

 belonging to the natural order Irideae. They require 

 the same treatment as the Ixia, &c. 



I1ESPER11DJS (Swainson). A family of diur- 

 nal lepidopterons insects, or butterflies, distinguished 

 by several remarkable characters. They are. for the 

 most part, small dull=colouved butterflies, extremely 

 active, flying with great velocity, but resting fre- 

 quently upon leaves and twigs. Their hind tibiae 

 are furnished with two pair of spurs, as in many 

 moths, and the antennre are short and clubbed at the 

 extremity, have the tip bent into an acute hook ; 

 when at rest, the lower wings are elevated, the upper 

 pair being extended horizontally. Tiie spiral tongue 

 i.s as long as the entire body, which is very robust. 

 The caterpillars, of which a few only are known, are 

 longated, naked, with a large head and sixteen legs. 



When full fed, they fold the adjacent leaves together 

 with the help of silken threads, within which they 

 become chrysalides, which are not angular like the 

 majority of butterflies, but short and smooth with 

 a slender transverse thread. By English collectors, 

 these butterflies are termed skippers, from their short 

 and irregular jerking kind of flight. These butterflies, 

 which were called by Linn;cus, Papilioncs Plcbeii 

 wbicoloe, were formed by Fabricius into the genus 

 Hesperia, from which several others were subsequently 

 detached. We have been surprised to observe that, 

 in Mr. Duncan's recent work upon British Butter- 

 flic^ these insects have been, for some unexplained 

 reason, entirely omitted. We presume that this is an 

 oversight, for the author will scarcely venture to 

 assert that they are not butterflies, although, in some 

 of their characters, they approach the moths. 



The British species, (ot which there are ten re- 

 corded, some, however, being doubtful natives,) were 

 introduced by Fabricius into his genera Thymele, 

 having the antenna: terminated in a curved club with an 

 acute hook at the top, (comprising Hesperia Alveolus, 

 and Tages,) and Pamplula, having the club of the 

 antennae straight and terminated by an acute hook, 

 containing Hesperia Panv>cus,Lmea, Sylvanus, Comma, 

 and some others. 



The exotic species are very numerous, being mostly 

 of a brown or dusky colour, with paler, white or talc- 

 like spots on the upper wings ; some of them are 

 furnished with long tails to the posterior wings. 



HESSIAN FLY. A minute dipterous insect, 

 exceedingly destructive to wheat in America, belong- 

 ing to the genus CECIDOMYIA, which see for an account 

 of its ravages and figure of the insect. 



HETEROCERID^E (MacLeay). A small but 

 interesting family of coleopterous insects belonging 

 to the section Pentamera, and subsection Philhydra; 

 the body is small and oval but depressed, the antennae 

 with the seven terminal joints forming a serrated mass, 

 the tibiae flat and spined, and the tarsi four-jointed 

 only. The species are found in moist situations, pre- 

 ferring the muddy banks of standing water, in which 

 they burrow by means of their tibiae, which are adapted 

 to that purpose. There is one genus in the family, 

 Heterocerus (Bosc), in which there are six British 

 species. 



HETEROGYNA (Latreille). A subsection of 

 aculeate hymenopterous insects, distinguished, as the 

 name implies, by the diversity in appearance of the 

 female from the ordinary type of the order. Latreille 

 introduces into this subsection the family of the ants 

 (Formicidai), which are gregarious, and in which the 

 neuters or abortive females are wingless ; and the 

 family MutiU'idae, in which there are only two distinct 

 sexes, the females being wingless. This sex is generally 

 destitute of ocelli ; the antennae in all the species are 

 elbowed, and the tongue is Small, rounded, or spoon- 

 shaped. Notwithstanding the diversity occasioned 

 by the apterous condition of the females, it appears to 

 us that the MutiUicke are in nowise related to the 

 ants, and that they are closely allied to the fossorial 

 sand waps, which they closely resemble in (heir habits. 



HETEROMERA (Latreille). A section of 

 coleopterous insects of great extent, of which the in- 

 vestigation is very difficult, but which are distinguished 

 by having only four joints on the posterior tarsi, 

 whilst the four anterior tarsi are five-jointed. Latreille 

 divides the section into four subsections. 



