INTRODUCTION. 



THE HESPERIID^, OR SKIPPERS. 



As stated in the Preface to our second volume, it had been 

 intended to include the Hesperiidce therein, and thus to com- 

 plete our account of the Butterflies in two volumes ; but our 

 account of the preceding Families extended to a greater length 

 than was expected, and it was finally decided to commence the 

 third volume of Lepidoptera with them. It is, however, admitted 

 that the Hesperiida approach nearer to the true Moths than to 

 the true Butterflies ; for while there are several transitional 

 forms between the Hesperiidce and the Moths, no such forms 

 between the Hesperiidce and the true Butterflies are known to 

 exist. Hence, although the division of the Order Lepidoptera 

 into the two great groups of Rhopalocera, or Butterflies, and 

 Helcrocera, or Moths, is more or less artificial, it is rendered 

 more so by the inclusion of the Hesperiidce in the former 

 group ; and I have always considered that if the distinction was 

 worth retaining at all, except as a mere matter of convenience, 

 the line of demarcation should be drawn before, instead of 

 after, the Hesperiidce. This Family was actually included by 

 Duncan in his " British Moths," in Jardine's "Naturalist's Lib- 

 rary," and was passed over altogether in the volumes on Exotic 

 Lepidoplera. Two modern authors, Zebrawski and Meyrick, 

 have proposed systems of classification, in which the Butter- 



