THE SKIPPERS. 307 



2. Skippers. {Hesperiadce.) 



The butterflies of this tribe frequent grassy places, and 

 low bushes and thickets, flying but a short distance at a time, 

 with a jerking motion, whence they are called skippers by 

 English writers. When they alight, they usually keep the 

 hind wings extended horizontally, and the fore wings some- 

 what raised, but spreading a little, and not entirely closed, 

 as in other butterflies ; some of them, however, have all the 

 wings spread open when at rest, and there are others in 

 which they are all elevated. Notwithstanding this difference 

 in the position of the wings, the Hesperians all have certain 

 characters in common, by which they are readily distin- 

 guished from other butterflies. Their bodies are short and 

 thick, with a large head, and very prominent eyes ; the 

 feelers are short, almost square at the end, and thickly 

 clothed with hairs, which give them a clumsy appearance ; 

 the antennae are short, situated at a considerable distance 

 from each other, and in most of these insects with the knob 

 at the end either curved like a hook, or ending with a lit- 

 tle point bent to one side ; the legs are six in number, and 

 the four hinder shanks are armed with two pairs of spurs. 



Their caterpillars are somewhat spindle-shaped, cylindrical 

 in the middle, and tapering at each extremity, without spines, 

 and generally naked or merely downy, with a very large 

 head and a small neck. They are solitary in their habits, 

 and many of them conceal themselves within folded leaves, 

 like the caterpillars of the thistle and nettle butterflies ( Cyn- 

 thia Oardui and Atalanta), and undergo their transforma- 

 tions within an envelope of leaves or of fragments of stubble 

 gathered together with silken threads. Their chrysalids are 

 generally conical or tapering at one end, and rounded, or 

 more rarely pointed, at the other, never angular or orna- 

 mented with golden spots, but most often covered with a 

 bluish-white powder or bloom. They are mostly fastened 

 by the tail and a few transverse threads, within some folded 



