207 



slightly smaller and darker than English ones. In Cumberland it is abundant 

 at the Brick House, Saburgham. The caterpillars from this bleak place pro- 

 duce very small dark specimens, and also some beautiful varieties with large 

 canary -coloured spots on the fore-wings." 



This brings to a close the second division of the Butterflies, viz. " Pen- 

 dulse," so called because the chrysalides are attached by the tail only, and 

 swing in the air, with the head pointed towards the ground. 



The third and last division is called " Involutse," from the circumstance of 

 the caterpillars concealing themselves in a silken follicle or cocoon before 

 changing into chrysalides. These cocoons are generally hidden in rolled-up 

 leaves, or at the roots of grass ; some of them are even attached to grass stems. 

 The simple structure of the chrysalis, and the habit of the caterpillar of rolling 

 up leaves are peculiarities at variance with the general characters of the 

 Diurni, and agreeing with the Heterocera. 



Family HESPEB1DJE. 



This is a family of butterflies generally of small size and obscure colours, 

 and very numerous in species, probably more than fifteen hundred are known, 

 and of this number at least half are natives of tropical America. Many fine 

 species occur in India, and but few in Australia, Africa, and Europe. In the 

 last named quarter of the globe there are scarcely more than thirty species. 

 Their flight is extremely rapid, tbe eye being hardly able to follow their 

 movements. They delight in the hottest sunshine ; and their small powerful 

 wings, enable them together with their robust bodies to rival the hawk moths 

 in swiftness. Their peculiar flitting movements have caused them to be 

 named " Skippers " by our English collectors. Many of the species possess 

 a pair of spines in the middle of the hind tibiae, which are not found in any 

 other butterflies. In some species, Nisioniadvs tages, Tamycus zeleucus, &c., 

 all the wings lie in a deflexed position when the insect is at rest ; but in most 

 of the species the hind- wings are deflexed, whilst the fore-ones are more or 

 less perpendicular. It is on this account that Dr. Agassiz regarded the 

 Hesperidse as a lower type than the majority of butterflies (which on account 

 of their resting with their wings in a position opposed to that which they 

 occupied in the chrysalis state, are considered not only as higher than the 

 rest of the Lepidoptera, but also than all other insects.) The veins of the 

 wings offer several remarkable particulars : thus, the four branches of the 

 postcostal vein of the fore-wings arise at nearly equal distances apart, before 

 $he anterior extremity of the discoidal cell, closely followed by the two djs- 



