LEPIDOPTERA. 



57 



subdivisions, he has the following ingenious observation : " Metamorphosis, in its larva state," 

 he says, " may, and I think must be, taken into the characters of genera, in the absence of other 

 sufficiently distinctive notices. Those Botanists who have derived their systems primarily from 

 Hie fruit, have nevertheless a regard to the Jlower, and by this means reciprocally elucidate existing 

 obscurities. Caterpillars are the flowers of the Lepidoptera. They are indeed not always present 

 when the perfect insects are before the examiner. But, is the case different with the Botanist ?" The 

 application is evident, and I shall conclude this observation with the following remark of the 

 author of the Horae Entomologicae. " As the knowledge of the whole life of an insect must make 

 us better acquainted with its nature than a mere description of one of its forms, in the same 

 proportion ought metamorphosis to outweigh every other principle of arrangement." Horae 

 Entom., page 448. 



I proceed to the consideration of the first tribe of Lepidoptera, the Papilionice, 



consisting of the Lepidoptera Dhirna of Latreille, the Tagschmetterlinge oder Falter of 



Denis and Schieffermiiller, Ochsenheimer, &c. ; the genus Papilio of Linnaeus, Les 



Papillaris Reaum., Geoff, &c. 



Character of the Tribe: Metamorphosis: Larva provided with sixteen feet, elon- 

 gated, cylindrical, with a globose head, attenuated posteriorly, retractile, attached 

 by means of a contracted articulation, so as to appear in the typical species, when 

 exserted, disjoined from the body, of a slow, tardy habit. (It presents ^/we princi- 

 pal modifications of form.) 



Chrysalis naked, angular, attached by the tail, but variously suspended ; in one 

 stirps only folliculated, or covered by a contorted leaf, in the same manner as 

 some of the Nocturnal Lepidoptera. 



Perfect Insect : Antenna; composed of numerous articulations, slender at the base, 

 incrassated towards the tip, rarely filiform, but generally terminated by a club, 

 which is variously modified in the different subdivisions. Wings erect when the 

 insect is at rest, without hook at the margin of the lower wings ; in one stirps the 

 posterior wings only are elevated. Posterior tibia?, in most cases, with a single pair 

 of spurs at the tip only. They all fly in the day. 



Character Tribus. Metamorphosis: Larva pedibas sedecim, elongata, cylindrica, 

 tarda ; capite globoso retractili ; exserto, a corpore disjuncto. 



Chrysalis nuda, angulata, postice alligata, sed vario modo suspensa ; in stirpe anopluri- 

 formi subfolliculata Icevis, et Lepidopterorum aliquorum nocturnorum chrysalidi similis. 



Imago : Antenna; mulliarticulata;, basi graciles, apice crassiores plerumque capitulate 

 aut clavalce, in paucis fliformes vel subsetacea- rel apice graciliore uncinato. Alas 

 insecto sedente erectce, inferiores retmaculo nullo. In stirpe anopluriformi ala> 

 posticce tanlum erectce vel suberectce. Tibiae postica- plerumque apice solo calcarato. 

 Volatus diurnus. 

 This tribe, according to the modifications of the larva, is divisible into five 



stirpes or races, a connected view of which is given in the following Table. 



i 



