1 6 SOUTH-AFEICAN BUTTEEFLIES. 



Erycinidce) ; smooth, granulated, transversely ribbed, downy, or spiny ; 

 always with ten pro-legs. Head often horned superiorly ; tail some- 

 times forked. 



Pupa. — Smooth or granulated, usually more or less angulated : 

 head with one more or less acute anterior median projection, or two 

 divergent ones ; thorax dorsally prominent or humped ; abdomen often 

 dorsally tuberculated, rarely spinose. Attached by the tail to a silken 

 web, and either hanging free vertically or braced horizontally or at an 

 angle by a silken girth. Not enclosed in any cocoon or covering 

 (except in a few Papilionidm and the Hcsperidce generally, which are 

 partly enclosed in a leaf drawn together by silken threads, and certain 

 Satyi-incE. and Lyccenidce which are hidden in the ground). 



I. Distinctive Characters of Rhopalocera. 



In the diagnosis of the Sub-Order given above, the more promi- 

 nent characters distinguishing Butterflies are, in the perfect insect, the 

 long-jointed and clubbed antenna3 ; the absence of stcmmata or simple 

 eyes, of retinaculum, or retaining ring and bristle,^ and of transverse 

 or reticulated neuration in the wings ; and the want (except in one 

 Family) of a second pair of spurs on the tibi« of the hind-legs. There 

 do not appear to be any points of structure in the larvae or pupae 

 which are not discoverable among those of the Sub-Order Heterocera ; 

 although it is quite an exception to find any pupa of a Moth angulated, 

 freely exposed, or suspended by caudal and median silken attachments, 

 like those of nearly all Butterflies." 



There are, however, some secondary characteristics of Butterflies 

 which are worth noting, although not absolutely peculiar to them. 

 The first of these is the distinctness or definition of the colouring and 

 marking of the under side of the wings, which usually displays an 

 entirely different pattern from that of the upper side, and is often more 

 elaborate in decoration, and sometimes more brilliant and varied in 

 hues. The second, which is evidently in close relation to the first, is 

 the almost universal habit of holding the wings vertically when at rest, 

 by which attitude the under side of those organs is (often for a long 



1 Blanchard employed the presence or absence of this character, in naming his two 

 divisions of the Lepidoptera respectively Chalinoptera (^Heterocera or Moths), and Achali- 

 noptera ( = Rhopalocera or Butterflies). 



- Until recently I was not aware that any Moth chrysalis existed which was attached hy 

 the tail only, in the manner so frequent among Butterfly chrysalides, but this case has 

 occurred to me (August 1884) in rearing what I believe to be an aberrant member of the 

 Tortrices from larvae tunnelling the woody receptacle of Protea melUfera. The larva was of 

 the ordinary sub-cylindrical form, but the pupa was in appearance intermediate between the 

 Lycrenid and Hesperid types, and, to my astonishment, was attached horizontally to the lid 

 of a breeding-cage by the tail only, quite in the manner of several species oi Lyccenidce. The 

 three larvie I had all assumed the pupal state in this position, but only one imago was pro- 

 duced. The stout, thick pupa, alike in colour, size, and shape (except for a small pointed 

 projection on the front of the head) nearly resembled that of Thecla Lynceus as figured by 

 Duponchel {Iconogr. Chen., pi. viii. fig. 31). 



