2 



BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



insects have been found in the neighbourhood of the small lake of 

 Florissant, high up in the Colorado Parks, yet he has only seen eight 

 butterflies among them, each belonging to different genera. He 

 further notes that this is also the case with the fossil butterflies found 

 at Radoboj, at Aix, and at Rott in the European tertianes, and with 

 two exceptions, Eugonia and Pontia, no representative of genera found 

 today has been discovered. The fossil species are all extinct. 



It is largely a matter of speculation, from which of the main stirpes 

 or root-stocks of the lepidoptera the butterflies have sprung, but they 

 have, as we have already noticed, upright eggs in common with 

 Castniids, Noctuids, etc., and the arrangement of the tubercles and the 

 presence of the remarkable chinglands of their larvae also suggest that 

 these are among their nearest allies at the present time. The- matter 

 is just here of less importance than the knowledge that, since the 

 butterflies branched off on their own account, they have developed, in 

 various directions, strongly marked characters of their own, and that 

 now, each of the two, usually-accepted, large superfamily groups, Urbi- 

 colicles or Skippers and Papilionides or Papilios, is subdivided into 

 large groups or families, some containing vast numbers of species 

 exhibiting very varying degrees of specialisation. 



Some butterflies are very generalised in their structure, i.e., they 

 show a number of very simple characters which are commonly observed 

 among a large number of other lepidopterous insects, others again are 

 exceedingly specialised and show some well-marked peculiarity very 

 strongly. Of our two large groups the Urbicolides are assumed to be 

 more generalised than the Papilionides, although, compared with many 

 other superfamilies, the Urbicolides are very highly specialised. 



Whilst, therefore, there are marked differences between the super- 

 families and families into which butterflies are subdivided, it will be 

 readily understood that they are, in reality, very closely allied to the 

 moths. No hard and fast lines of distinction can be shown to exist ; 

 variation is the basis of all progress in evolution, and the student, 

 therefore, must look for differences as well as similarities, and try to 

 fathom the meaning of both when he observes them. Similarities in 

 some one particular do not always denote close relationship between 

 species, they may be mere analogies and not homologies, whilst marked 

 differences do usually denote considerable separation and more distant 

 relationship. 



CHAPTER II. 



EGGLAYING OF BUTTERFLIES. 



The egglaying habits of butterflies are very varied, yet almost 

 absolutely constant for the same species. So much is this so that, in 

 many instances, the butterfly selects almost exactly the same portion 

 of the plant on which to deposit her eggs, the upperside of a leaf, the 

 underside of a leaf, the pedicel of a flower, the sheathing part of a 

 grass blade, etc. Thus it has been noted {Ent. Bee., iv., p. 225) that, 

 whenever the ? s of the early brood of Cyaniru argiolus choose holly 

 on which to lay their eggs, they almost always lay them on the calyx, 



