212 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXVII. 



on the under side of a leaf, part of which is drawn together by a few 

 silks to form a concave depression ; Amjpittia maro head-down, 

 absolutely in the open, on a stalk of rice or grass near the ground. 



' A proposed Classification of the Hesjperiidce, with a Eevision of 

 the Genera,' by Lieut. E. Y. Watson, Madras Staff Corps, F.Z.S., 

 F.E.S , which appeared in the ' Proceedings of the Zoological Sociey, 

 of London,' January 17, 1893, is practically the latest efiiort at arrang- 

 ing the skiiapers scientifically into, first, more or less natural groups 

 and, secondly, into proper genera. The work deals with all known 

 species, both from the old world as well as the new world and is based 

 on the study of 234 generic names of which 49 were sunk by the author 

 as synonyms, while 45 new genera were described. He states at 

 the same time that it is based entirely upon the collection of the 

 British Museum while he acknowledges that " in addition to the 

 collection of the British Museum, free access has been afforded me to 

 the valuable collection of Messrs. Godman and Salvin." His time 

 being limited, a certain number of species mentioned were not sepa- 

 rated into genera but were included in those to which they seemed 

 to be most nearly allied. 



Watson says that, before 1874, no serious attempt had ever been 

 made to arrange the genera of the family into natural groups but 

 that it had been done later for limited faunae. He then states that 

 the only suggested arrangement that seemed to him to be a perfectly 

 natural one was that of Scudder in the ' Bulletin of the Buffalo Society 

 of Natural Science ' (1874). According to this, two sub-divisions 

 were erected for the Hesjperiidce of New England in America, namely 

 the Hesperidi and the Pamphilidi, based to a very large extent upon 

 the secondary sexual characters of the males, the egg, larva and pupa 

 supplying subsidiary characters. Watson approves of these and then 

 alludes to an amplification of Scudder's arrangement by Mabille in 

 1878 in the ' Annales de la Societe Entomologique Beige ' which 

 suggest a third tribe called the Pyrrhopygini which he adopts. Speyer 

 then, in 1879, in ' Genera of the HesperiidEe of the European Fauna ' 

 published in the ' Stett. ent. Zeitung ' made a suggestion that has 

 proved to be of the greatest importance in the classification of genera, 

 namely that the position of vein 5 of the fore wing in relation to veins 

 4 and 6 would be a character of value. Watson makes full use of 

 this character in his keys. He alludes to the very superficial way 

 in which many authors have characterized their genera and has 

 adhered to the decisions of Scudder in his ' Historical Sketch of the 

 Genera of Butterflies ' absolutely to fix the doubtful ones. For 

 genera described after Scudder's work and for which no type was 

 specified, the species that best agreed with the genus was taken as 

 type. He then refers to the male secondary characters on the wings : 

 the costal fold, discal stigma and tufts of hair which he concludes 



