34 



INTRODUCTION. 



diurnal Lepidoptera. Now if we turn to the last tribe of this order, the Phalaenidse, we 

 find again in the stirps farthest removed from the typical group, or from the Geometry, 

 a stirps agreeing in many particulars with the Hesperidae. The individuals belong- 

 ing to this group in the larva state, live in contorted or convoluted leaves ; hence the 

 name Tortrices is by preference appHed to them. The perfect insect likewise re- 

 sembles the Hesperidae, and this not only in such characters as are common to all 

 nocturnal Lepidoptera, but in several in which it deviates from them and approaches 

 the Papilionid^ ; of these I shall mention at present only the form of the an- 

 tennae, and the distribution of the marks on the wings. On this subject striking 

 illustrations are aiforded by several Javanese Papilionidae, which will be given in the 

 sequel ; preparatory to which, I shall at present only refer to the figure of one of the 

 insects on the second plate, fig. 1. genus Fetavia, where the reader will find most of 

 the characters of the Tortrices, viz. form of antennae, additional spurs to the posterior 

 tarsi, marking of the hinder wings, &c. in an insect, which Latreille, Cramer, 

 and other writers have arranged among the diurnal Lepidoptera. A reference to 

 Mr. Curtis's genera Peronia and Sarrothripus, will further illustrate this sub- 

 ject, which I shall pursue more at large in the analysis of the fifth tribe. But 

 there are various points of affinity, of a more general nature, between the 

 Papilionidae and Phalasnid^. Both tribes are in a greater or less degree diurnal 

 in their habits ; while the Hesperidae fly in the evening and many of the Phalaenidse 

 at night, we find that some of the typical insects of the latter tribe fly in the 

 day. The habit of carrying the wings erect when at rest, is likewise observed in 

 several of the typical Phalaenidae, while in the Hesperidae it is perfectly intermediate. 

 Many individuals, more removed from the point of contact of the two tribes, indicate 

 a partial approach either in their conformation or in their habits. Of these I shall 

 mention in this place two remarkable South- American Lepidoptera, now arranged in 

 the genus Helicopis of Fabricius, the Papilio Cupido and P. Gnidus of Linnaeus. 



I shall conclude this inquiry with some observations, which give me an opportunity 

 to introduce the only subdivision of Lepidoptera of any extent, which has not yet 

 been mentioned, and to adduce the confirmation afforded by the Wiener Verzeichnis 

 of the view I entertain of the union of the Plialaenidae and Papiliones. It is the genus 

 Pterophoriis of Fabricius, the Pterophores of Geoffi-oi. Regarding this remarkable 

 group, we find in the work just cited, p. 145, this observation : " We place the 

 Pterophores (or Geistchen) with Linn^us, after the small nocturnal Lepidoptera ; and 

 here they form the passage to the Papiliones, according to our opinion, more pro- 

 perly than in the disposition made of them by M. Geoffroi, after the Papiliones and 

 Sphinges, and before the Bombyces." This remarkable group, the true situation of 

 which I shall not attempt to investigate at present, greatly resembles the diurnal Le- 



' pidoptei-a, 



