BUTTERFLIES — ERYCINIDAE 



35S 



species, usually of rather small size, exhibiting a great variety of 

 shape and coloration, some of them being remarkably similar to 

 some of the gay, diurnal moths of South America. The palpi are 

 usually small, but in Ourocnemis they are large and porrect. The 

 family is specially characteristic of tropical America, but there is 

 one small group of 30 or 40 species, NemeoMides, in the Eastern 

 Hemisphere. We have one species in Britain, Nemcohius liwina, 

 the Duke of Burgundy Fritillary. Neither the larvae nor tlie 

 pupae of Erycinidae present any well-marked characteristic 

 feature, but exhibit considerable variety. According to Bar,^ 

 some of the larvae are like those of moths ; the caterpillar of 

 Meliloeus is said to be like that of a Liparis : the chrysalis has 

 the short, rounded form of that of the Lycaenidae, and is sus- 

 pended with the head down, and without a band round the 

 body. The larvae of JSurygona are gregarious. The pupae of some 

 other forms adhere, heads downwards, to branches. Scudder 

 considers that this family is not distinct from Lycaenidae, and 

 that the Central American genus Uumaeus connects the two. 

 Eeuter also treats Erycinidae as a division of Lycaenidae. 



Sub-Fam. 1. Erycinides. — [Char ctcters of the family.] Pcilin 

 not umisucdly large. We place all the Erycinidae in this sub- 

 family except the following — 



Sub-Fam. 2. Libytheides. — Bv.tterflies of average size, with 

 the palpi large and porrect : the front legs of the male small, the 

 tarsus reduced to one Joint : the front leg of the female of the 

 normal structure, and hut little reduced in size. This division 

 consists of the single genus Lihythea, with only a score of species. 

 They are Insects somewhat like Vanessa in appearance, but tan- 

 not fail to be recognised on account of the peculiar palpi. The 

 genus is of very wide distribution, occurring in most parts of the 

 warm and temperate continental regions, and it also occurs in 

 Mauritius and the Antilles. 



The Libytheides have given rise to much difference of opinion 

 amongst systematists, some of whom assign them as a sub- 

 family to the Erycinidae, some to the Nymphalidae ; while others 

 treat them as a family apart. The families Nymphalidae, Ery- 

 cinidae and Lycaenidae are so intimately allied, that Scudder is 

 probably correct in considering them to form really one huge 

 family ; if this view were adopted there would be no difficulty 



' BvM. Soc. ent. Fratice, 1856, pp. c, ci. 



