588 



INSECTA— ORDER LEPIDOPTERA. 



Family 



Hesperiidce 

 (Sldppers). 



The last family of butterflies, the Hesperiidce, has six perfect legs in 

 botli sexes, but differs very much from any of the preceding groups. The 

 head is broad, the antennae are set widely apart, and are 

 generally hooked at the tips, the body is rather stout, and 

 tlie flight is short and jerlcy. Our species have somewhat 

 triangular fore-wings, and rounded hind-wings, and are 

 brown and tawny ; black, tesselated with square white spots- 

 or brown, with dull greyish andrather indistinct spots. 

 The Hesperiidce are very numerous in South America, 

 but less so in the Old World. They are mostly of 

 small size, the largest being a dull blue West African 

 species, Rhopalocainpta iphis (Dru.), which measures 

 about four inches across the wings. They form a 

 transition to the moths ; many species sit with the 

 whigs expanded, instead of raising them over their p.^ 72.-Grizzled Skippek 

 backs ; and they often make a rough sort of cocoon in (Hesperia malva). Nat. size. 

 a leaf. The Grizzled Skipper, Hesperia maltiw (Linn. ), 



here figured is a small black and white butterfly not uncommon in England. 

 The Heterocera, or moths, are divided into a great number of families, 

 which are loosely classed together under various headings ; but the classifica- 

 tion of moths is still in an unsatisfactory state, and though 

 Heterocera, or many groups of families, large and small, are perfectly 

 Moths. natural, others are ill-defined and unsatisfactory. The pld 



group Sphinges is now quite given up, including, as it did, 

 three totally distinct sections, the hawk-moths, clear-wings, and burnets. 

 The Bombyces include a number of very discordant families, for which no 

 definite collective characters can be found, such as the tigers, footmen, eggars, 

 emperor moths, swifts, etc. The Noctuce, or night-flying moths proper, are 

 more compact, though even here there is a difficulty in determining whether 

 many genera belong to this group, or to the Bombyces. The Geometrce are a 

 compact group, and so to some extent are the remaining groups. We will 

 now consider the moths more in detail. 



Of the families classed under Sphinges and Bombyces, most of the species 

 have short, stout, and often tufted bodies, large wings, and pectinated, or 

 sometimes fusiform antennae. The larvae have sixteen legs, and generally spin 

 cocoons, though some pupate in tlie ground. Many beautiful day-flying 

 moths belong here, some of which were formerly classed as butter- 

 flies. Among these are the bright green black-striped ZTianiidce of South 



America, three inches in expanse, with 

 long tails on the hind-wings like swallow- 

 tail butterflies. More familiar to us 

 are the burnets (Zygcenida), moths with 

 long fore-wings about an inch and a half 

 across, with long pubescent bodies, and 

 blackish bronzy fore-wings, with five or 

 six crimson spots, and red hind-wings. 

 They are found in meadows, flying heavily 

 from flower to flower in the daytime. The 

 tiger moths (ArdiidiK) are larger, and very 

 brightly coloured moths, and more nocturnal 

 in their habits as a rule. The commonest, 

 Bypercompa caia (Linn)., has brown fore- 



Fiff. 73. — Cinnabar Moxrt 

 (HiposHtajacob(xa). Nat. size. 



