300 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



Scudder further says that the larvae may be at once distinguished 

 from all others by the small size of the head, their more or less onisci- 

 form, and never elongate, shape, and by the brevity of their legs and 

 prolegs, forcing some of them to glide rather than to creep. Not a few 

 are known to avail themselves of their small head, extensible neck, and 

 oblique position of the mouth, to burrow into pods, seeds, and fruits. 

 The larva, as it leaves the egg, is,. in both of the divisions of the group, 

 distinguished by the presence of chitinous annuli or lenticular eleva- 

 tions, serially arranged on the dorsal side of the body. This character 

 they appear to share with the Urbicolids, in which, however, the position 

 is somewhat different. The onisciform shape of the Ruralid (Lycaenid) 

 branch makes these recognisable at a glance, but even when they are 

 cylindrical they differ from those of every other group in their abbreviated 

 form. In the Lemoniid (Erycinid) branch there is greater variability 

 of form, but none of the great elongation of the body, characteristic of 

 the other families, is to be observed ; in both groups they differ from 

 most other larvae, and agree together in the incomplete structure of the 

 posterior part of the head, the chitinous skull presenting here no 

 downward slope, the softer membrane of the succeeding segment being 

 attached to near the summit of the head, so that the head becomes 

 more or less retractile, sometimes, certainly to a very slight degree, 

 within the prothoracic segment, while the head itself has a very 

 decided obliquity. 



The egg appears to be, throughout the group, uniformly broader 

 than high, a character, however, that it shares with the typical section 

 of the Urbicolids and the Parnassiids; oblate spheroidal in shape, often 

 much flattened, becoming, in its extreme forms, echinoid, tiarate, or 

 turban-shaped in general appearance. Scudder says that the agree- 

 ment of the Lycsenids and Lemoniids in the characters of their eggs, 

 is so complete, that it is impossible, with the limited knowledge of the 

 Lemoniid eggs at disposal, to formulate any satisfactory diagnostic 

 distinctions. In the solitary European representative of the Erycinids 

 (Lemoniids), however, i.e., Hamearis (Nemeobius) lucina, the sculpture 

 is very different from that of the general type presented by the 

 Palaearctic Lycaenids. 



Chapman further finds that the antennas of the two Ruralid groups 

 offer considerable resemblance. He writes (in litt.) that the antennsa 

 of the Lycaenids and Erycinids only differ in degree, the simpler forms 

 being very much alike, with cylindrical joints and sense-hairs gener- 

 ally distributed over the unsealed area, and with the bristles arranged 

 chiefly in a terminal circle on each joint, as in Urbicolids. In a large 

 proportion, however, of Erycinids (Lemoniids) there is a more or less 

 developed ventral groove, which resembles that of Papilios, and differs 

 from that of Pierids and Nymphalids, in that the fine sense-hairs are found 

 outside, as well as within, the groove, whilst, in the two latter families 

 (both of which have grooved antennae), the sense-hairs are confined to 

 the grooves. The Lycaenids, therefore, have preserved throughout a 

 form of antenna that is only found in those Papilionids and Erycinids 

 (Lemoniids) that have these organs least specialised. Though 

 specialising as much, perhaps, as these other families in many other 

 ways, they were satisfied with very little modification in their antennas, 

 (See also Nov. Zool., v., p. 874.) 



