222 LEPIDOPTERA INDIOA. 



depressed, serrate ribs, with distinct cross lines : a kind of hermaphroditism seems to 

 occur sometimes ; from the body of (apparent) males of Suastus eltola and of Coladenia 

 dan, both having perfect prehensores of the form characteristic of their respective 

 species, he obtained one or two well-developed eggs, exactly similar to those taken 

 from the females of the same species. 



The Ilesperiidse have six perfect legs in both sexes, the hind tibiae with few 

 exceptions have two pairs of spurs, the forewing has always four sub-costal branches, all 

 emitted before the end of the cell, and in the hindwing the discoidal veins are usually 

 slender and often incomplete. 



Scudder * describes them as of small or medium size, with rather small wiags ; 

 head in a horizontal plane, the tongue being inserted opposite the middle of the eyes 

 or even higher. Antennae widely separated at the base, the space between them more 

 than equalling half the vertical diameter of the eye, the tip of the club more or less 

 distinctly pointed and recurved. E}'es usually overhung at the outer base of the 

 antennte by a curving pencil of bristly hairs, the cornea extending over almost the 

 entire ocellar globe ; the front tibise almost invariably have a foliate epiphysis on the 

 inner side, and the hind tibise a middle pair of spurs, in addition to the terminal pair. 

 Very truly Elwes and Edwards say,f " Although the Ilesperiidse as a group are very 

 well marked and easy of recognition, their classification inter se is a matter of great 

 difficulty, owing mainly to the paucity of index characters. Venation is probably of 

 less assistance here than in any other group of Rhopalocera." The classification of the 

 family is undoulttedly very difficult, the venation gives us little help, the variations 

 l)eing very slight ; we only know the life history of comparatively few of the Indian 

 species. Elwes' memoir goes to prove that Doherty's statement J is quite correct, that 

 " the prehensores of the Hesperiidse are by no means so constant as those of other 

 butterflies, and are lacking in generic characters, nevertheless their study seems to be 

 absolutely necessary to any clear understanding of the species." 



Fabricius, in lUiger's Magazine, divided the family, which he called Urhicolse, into 

 three genera, Thymele, Bellas, and Pamphila ; leaving out Helias, the type of which is 

 lost, and now not recognisable, the whole family was divided into two great divisions, 

 including many genera from America and other parts of the world with which we are 

 not concerned in this work. 



In 1807 Latreille adopted the name Hesperiidse for the whole family. Hiibner, in 

 his " Verzeichniss," divided the " stirps " into eight great families, and Scudder says that 

 although the first three of these are founded mainly on the form of the wings, the 



*■ Scudder, i. p. 107 (1888). 



t Trans. Zool. Soc. 1897, p. 104. 



I Journ. As. Soc. Bengal, 1886, p. 140. 



