HESPEBIIDM 223 



others simply on their markings, these divisions are almost wholly unnatural, although 

 the sequence of the genera is far more reasonable than that of Herrick-Schaffer or 

 Butler. 



In 1874 Scudder* suargested an arrangement which he afterwards worked out more 

 completely in his " Butterflies of New England," and Mabille amplified this arrangement 

 on the Hesperiidee of the Brussels Museum.f 



In 1879 Speyer published a paper on "The Genera of the Ilesperudae of the 

 European Fauna," J in which he suggested that vein 5 of the forewing in relation with 

 veins 6 and 4 would probaljly prove to be a character of value. 



In 1886 Doherty§ published a tentative arrangement of the family based on a 

 three years' study of their eggs : he says, in most cases a genus is well and easilj- 

 defined by its venation, but that venation only very imperfectly expresses the relation- 

 ship in which it stands to other genera. To define families and subfamilies one must 

 study the ovation. He divides the family, in so far as his studies took him, into four 

 groups, Hesperiinse, Suastinse, Boarminse ( Cyclopides group), and Boarniinse [Boaris 

 group), but in the three last groups he mixes up genera which structurally and by 

 their known habits are so widely diflerent from each other as to make the adoption of 

 his classification quite impossible, but he notes that his work was still very imperfect, 

 and promises a further publication which unfortunately he did not live to give us. 



In 1893 Watson II undertook the classification of all the Hesperiidee of the National 

 collection in the British Museum, a very valuable paper, the first paper of any real 

 importance that has been published on the subject ; to a great extent he has adoptec\ 

 Scudder's arrangement, assisted by Speyer's suggestion as to the value of the position of 

 vein 5 of the forewing in determining the division of the sub-families. In 1895 Watson 

 published his " Key to the Asiatic Genera of the Hesperidse" ^ altering to a certain 

 extent the arrangement of his previous paper, and arranging some of the genera in what 

 he considered to be a more natural manner by slightly modifying the characters taken. 



In 1897, Elwes and Edwards produced their "Revision of the Oriental Ilesperidse"** 

 examining and giving illustrations of the genitalia of many species, slightly altering 

 the order of Watson's last arrangement, but practically working on the same lines ; 

 their account and figures of the genitalia are very instructive. Finally we come to the 

 very valuable papers of Davidson, Bell and Aitken on the life history of a large number 



* Bulletin of the Buffalo Society of Natural Science, i. p. 195 (1874). 

 t Ann. Soc. Ent. Beige, xxi. p. 12 (1878). 



I Stett. ent. Zeit. xl. p. 177 (1879). 



§ Journ. As. Soc. Bengal, 1886, p. 107. 



II Proc. Zool. Soc. 1893, p. 1. 



f Journ. Bo. Nat. Hist. Soc. ix. 1895, p. 411. 

 ** Trans. Zool, Soc. 1897, p. 101. 



