90 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



peria (Syrichtus) alveus in one such patch of not more than a foot 

 square. Most of the British species are common, or locally abundant. 

 Hex peria malvae abounds in woods, fields, and on grassy banks in May 

 and early June, and, at the same time, Nisoniades tages is to be found 

 on chalky and limestone hillsides, openings in woods, etc., among 

 bird's-foot trefoil. At the end of May, in early seasons, the abundant 

 Aug laden sylvanus makes its appearance, and the local Cyclopides 

 palaemon abounds in a few localities in Lincolnshire, Northampton- 

 shire, etc. In July, Adopaea flava (thaumas) appears, and the more 

 locals, lineola abounds in some localities, favouring, apparently, in our 

 islands, the southeastern seacoast, whilst at the same time the allied 

 Thy in elicit acteon, even more local, is confined to the steep slopes of 

 the southwestern seacoast. [n August, Urbicola comma is common 

 locally on chalk and limestone formations, whilst, occasionally, 

 second- brood specimens of Nisoniades tages appear in warm seasons. 

 If the collector want Thyrnelicus acteon, Adopaea lineola and Cyclopides 

 palaemon, he must of course visit, their special haunts, otherwise, 

 in the more favourable British localities, he may reasonably hope 

 to take the others, if he collects pretty widely, in his first or second 

 season. 



The superfamily has a world-wide distribution, but the number of 

 species inhabiting the Pala^arctic region is exceedingly small. The 

 species of the Nearctic and Pala3arctic areas are very similar, but the 

 former possesses quite twice as many species as the latter. It is, 

 however, essentially a tropical superfamily — South America being 

 particularly rich in the number of its species. 



Family : Urbicolid^e. 



This family is of world-wide distribution, and, so far as the Palae- 

 arctic species are concerned, is readily divisible into at least two very 

 distinct subfamilies — the Thymelicinae and Urbicolinae. The Thymeli- 

 cinae fall near the Urbicolinae in their imaginal characters, but in the 

 egg stage appear to form a group, quite distinct from the others. 

 Roughly the family coincides with Hiibner's Fam. G — Vigilantes, 

 Coitus 4-7, viz., Phemiadae, Augiadae. Thymelici, Apaiisti, and part of 

 the Brontiadae (Yerz., pp. 111-113). In this family, the $ has never 

 a costal fold on the forewing, but, usually, there is a marked discal 

 pocket on the forewings filled with strikingly specialised androconial 

 scales, and making a conspicuous black streak across the wing. Through- 

 out the family, the epiphysis on the tibia? of the first pair of legs 

 appears to be invariably present, thus agreeing with the Amblyscirtid 

 group of the Cyclopidids, the typical tribe of the latter, ( yclopididi, 

 being without them. On the tibiffi of the hind legs both pairs of 

 spurs are invariably present, and there is never a tuft of hair on the 

 front tibiae of the $ . The two subfamilies, Thymelicinae and rrbicolinae, 

 are comprised in Watson's Pamphilinae, sect. B (Proc. Zend. Soc. Lond., 

 1893, p. 70). The hmmiidae, another allied family, corresponding with 

 Watson's Pamphilinae, sect. C (op. cit., p. 70), have no Paleearctic repre- 

 sentative, and its relationship with Urbicolidae, as exhibited in the 

 early stages, has not yet been worked out. Watson's diagnosis of the 

 family (as Pamphilinae, sect. B) reads as follows : 



Antenna) very varied but never hooked ; the club either entirely without, or 

 with, a crook of varying length. Palpi with third joint in several genera long, 



