BRITISH MOTHS 



THEIR TRANSFORMATIONS. 



ORDER LEPIDOPTERA. 



SECTION II.— IIETEROCERA. 



TiiK distribution of this beautiful order of iusccts into three primary groups, Papilio, Sphinx, and Phalaena, 

 by Linnaeus, whicli correspond with Latreille's sections, Diurna, Crepuscularia, and Nocturna, has been alluded 

 to in the introductory portion of our former volume, in which — as it was at first intended that the first two 

 groups should be comprised therein — it appeared advisable to retain the divisions Crepuscularia and Nocturna 

 whereby the subjects of the first volume would have maintained a nominal distinction from those treated on in the 

 subsequent part of the work. As, however, the plan of the work has been altered so as to comprise the 

 butterflies alone in the first volume, I am enabled with less difficulty to adopt the distribution of M. Boisduval ; 

 by whom the order is divided into only two jiriniary divisions ; the first, or Rhopalocera, composed of the 

 butterflies, or the section Diurna ; and the second, or Ileterocera, comprising both the Crepuscularia and 

 Nocturna, or the hawk -moths (genus Sphinx, Linnanis), and moths (genus Phalajna, Linna>us). 



On referring to the " Systema Naturaj," we find the fonnation of the antennas and the period of flight to 

 constitute the only distinctive characters to separate the two last-mentioned tribes, the antenna; in Sphinx being 

 attenuated at each extremity, and subprismatical in form, whilst in Phahcna they were described as setaceous, 

 or gradually attenuated from the base to the extremity. The flight of Sphinx, on the other hand, is described as 

 being either in the morning or evening, whilst that of the Phala^na is nocturnal. Now these characters are 

 clearly insufficient to separate the two groups. Many of the species belonging to the Linnrean genus Sphinx, 

 for example, have not prismatical antenna- thickened at the middle, whilst a great number of them fly in the 

 hottest sunshine. Again, many Phahena have antenna similar to those of many Sphinges, and their flight, as 

 every entomological tyro knows, who has ever been out at dusk " motldny" is during the twilight : but the more 

 generalised views entertained by modern naturalists, who found their distributions, not upon an isolated character, 

 but upon the entire character of an animal, derived from all its peculiarities, lead us to the certain conviction that 



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