14 SOUTH-AFEICAN BUTTEEFLIES. 



may be in other respects), has been generally adopted ; and although 

 not satisfactory — the greater of the two divisions being founded on a 

 negative character — it is undoubtedly preferable to the older arrange- 

 ment into Diurna, Crcimscularia, and Nodurna, which were mere equi- 

 valents of the original Linnsean genera, Papilio, Sphinx, and Phalcena. 

 The English terms. Butterflies and Moths, exactly correspond to these 

 two Sub-Orders of PJwpaloccra and Eeterocera. The name Rhopalocera 

 has been objected to on the ground that some Butterflies have no 

 actual club or knob to the antennae ; but these exceptions are few, and 

 even in them there is always, as far as I have seen, a slight and 

 gradual thickening or incrassation towards the extremity of those 

 organs. Herri ch-S chaffer announced, in 1843, a further distinction in 

 structure between the antennge of the two Sub-Orders — viz., that their 

 joints (or at least those of the middle third of the organs) were in 

 the Rlio'palocera twice as long as, or much longer than, thick ; but in 

 the Eeterocera about equal in length and thickness, or not longer 

 than thick. 



The present work deals only with the South- African species of the 

 first Sub-Order, viz., the Bhoyalocera or Butterflies, 



