6 LEPIDOFTERA INBICA. 



or, in rare instances, witli no fastenings whatever, and tlien transforming in an 

 imperfect cell upon or beneatli the ground, with little or no silken lining. The 

 chrysalis is comparatively long and slender, enlarged in the middle and tapering, 

 generally to a considerable extent, at either end ; head advanced in front of the 

 prothorax ; ocellar prominences double, nearly always present at the side of the 

 head; abdomen, with rare exceptions, destitute of a lateral ridge; cremaster stout, 

 protuberant, the booklets at tip moderately long and rather slender (in rare cases 

 aborted), their apical portion thickened equally, or sometimes compressed, bent 

 over like a crook, the apex conical." (Scudder, I. c. p. 109.) 



General OnAUACTEEisTics of the Family NvMPHALiDiE. — In this family are 

 included the whole of the great division of butterflies in which the forelegs of the 

 perfect insect are atrophied, having the tarsus rudimentary in both sexes. De 

 Niceville (Butt. Ind. i. 21) remarks : — " In the aspect of the perfect insect, the 

 JSTymphalidie vary greatly ; in shape from the long wing of Hestia to the short deep 

 wing of Kallima; in colour from the sombre Satyrince to the brilliant Euploea and 

 Apatura ; in size from the tiny Ypthima to the gigantic Thaumantis ; in structure 

 from the weak Erehia and the delicately formed Cyrestis to the strong and rapid- 

 flying Charaxes. In habit too there is an equally wide divergence, from the shade- 

 loving, sometimes crepuscular Melanitis to the Vanessa, which basks in the hottest 

 sunshine." 



It corresponds with the "brush-footed butterflies" of Scudder (Butt, of the 

 E. United States, i. 1888, p. Ill), and from whose exhaustive work we gladly extract 

 the following : — " This most extensive,as well as the highest family of butterflies, is 

 spread over every portion of the globe ; although its maximum of development is 

 reached in the tropics, its relative numerical superiority is most evident in tem- 

 perate regions, and especially the north temperate zone of the Old "World, where its 

 numbers nearly equal all other butterflies combined. Although this family has long 

 been placed in a subordinate position, it is now generally considered by most philo- 

 sophical entomologists to hold the highest rank among butterflies, — a position which 

 was long ago given it by some of the early students. 



The atrophy of the forelegs of both sexes, found only in this family and 

 possessed by every member of it, and the suspension of the chrysalis by the tail only, 

 are sufficient by themselves to prove that in this group must be assigned the highest 

 rank. For, in the passage of the individual from the larval stage to the perfect 

 form, the segment bearing the front legs has in all Lepidoptera become constantly 

 reduced in size; and the atrophy of the legs borne by this segment, found in some 

 groups and not in others, must be considered an evidence that a difference cha- 

 racteristic of change from a lower to a higher grade of life is also a characteristic of 

 the passage from a lower to a higher grade of structui'e. Moreover, the chrysalids 



