92 INSECTS. 



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 coloured Plate, No. 2 from the left lower corner. It 

 is nearly allied to the common brimstone butterfly (Rhodocera rhamni), so 

 abundant in spring in English lanes and hedgerows. 



The Skippers, — Family Hesperiid^. 



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

 and more or less sombre coloured, 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 antennse are strongly hooked at their apex. Telegonus alardus, from 

 Venezuela, has large wings, 2 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 Lulworth skipper (P. actceon) is a rare, 

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

 south coast. Amongst others are P. silvanus, the large skipper, P. linea, the small 

 skipper, 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 (Cyclopides). The grizzled skipper {Hesperia malvcti) is a black or brown 

 butterfly, with white spots on the upper side, common in England in summer. The 

 silver-studded skipper (H. comma) is confined to some of the midland and southern 

 counties of England, though abundant on the Continent. Figures of this butterfly 

 will be found in the illustration on p. 89, and on the coloured Plate, No. 3 from 

 the top right corner. 



The Moths, — Suborder Heterocera. 



Since limitations of space will only admit mention of a few of the genera and 

 species of butterflies, we pass on to the moths, in which the antennas are of many 

 different forms, but never distinctly clubbed. Moths are vastly more numerous — 

 both in genera and species — than butterflies ; and, as already observed, are for the 

 most part nocturnal insects. The other distinctive features having been already 

 mentioned, we proceed to the first family of the group. 



