URBICOLIDES (HESPERIIDES) . 81 



Superfamily I: URBICOLIDES (HESPERIIDES). 



The " skipper " butterflies, as this superfamily is popularly called, 

 form a very distinct and separate group of the Rhopalocera, and are 

 considered by most of our best authorities — Speyer, Chapman, Reuter, 

 etc. — not only as equal in classificatory value to all the other butter- 

 flies, but as forming a transition to the Heterocera. It certainly 

 appears that the Urbicolid imagines exhibit many generalised char- 

 acters in certain details of their structure. Among others may be 

 noted — (1) The possession of an attachment (tibial epiphysis) to the 

 anterior tibiae. (2) The presence of two pairs of spurs on the posterior 

 tibiae (a peculiarly marked moth character) in several groups of the 

 superfamily. (3) The possession of a fully-developed retinaculum, or 

 catch -bristle, on the hindwings of certain species — Euschemon rajfiesiae, 

 etc. — usually referred to the Urbicolids. (4) The brush of stiff hairs 

 springing from the base of the antennae. (5) The peculiar mode of 

 rest, the wings sometimes depressed roof -like, in Xisoniades tages, 

 horizontally in Erynnis (Care liar odus) altheae, etc. (6) The generalised 

 form of the neuration. (7) The peculiar structure of the basal-fleck 

 of the labial palpi, etc. 



The "epiphysis cruralis " or "tibial epiphysis" of the anterior 

 tibiae, is a bare, blunt, lancet- or thorn-shaped chitinous projection, 

 which arises from the inner side of the tibiae and reaches to their 

 termination ; it lies quite close to the tibia, and its free surface is 

 clothed with a flat tuft of hairs, so that it is sometimes not easily 

 recognised. It appears to be present in no other group of Rhopalocera 

 except the Papiliones (sens, strict.). No group of butterflies except the 

 Urbicolids appears to have two pairs of spurs on the posterior tibiae. The 

 brush of hairs at the base of the antennae, called by some authors the 

 "locklet," lies between them and the upper margin of the eyes, almost 

 in the place occupied by the ocelli, but a little farther forwards, i.e., 

 near the middle of the base of the antennae, the ocelli, when present, 

 lying on the posterior margin. It is developed alike in both sexes, but 

 varies in length, form and colour, in different genera and species. 



The basal-fleck or basal-spot at the base of the labial palpi, differs 

 very markedly in structure from that of the other Rhopalocera, always 

 occupying a much larger area (Ent. Record, x., pi. i., fig. 6), whilst 

 the chitinous cones, which are unusually small, and irregularly and 

 diffusedly distributed, are covered with very peculiar modified hair- 

 structures, which occur only in the Hesperiids (Urbicolids). None of 

 the different characters already mentioned as being characteristic of all 

 the other Rhopalocerous divisions are found in this group. The basal- 

 fleck, indeed, as well as the palpi of the Hesperiids, represents a type 

 quite different from that of the other butterflies, a view which is con- 

 firmed by several other characters (Reuter, Ent. Record, x., p. 96). 



The secondary sexual characters exhibited by the imagines are also 

 interesting, and, in some cases, striking. The most noticeable are — 

 (1) The "costal fold" in the $ s of certain Hesperiines. (2) The 

 conspicuous " discal cell" or " discoidal stigma" in which the 3 



