26o 
SOUTH-AFRICAN BUTTERFLIES. 
small, thick ; fore-ivings usually more or less elongated apically ; sub- 
costal nervure five-branched, — nervules all near together, originating at 
ahout equal distances apart ^ the fifth {and sometimes the fourth also) given 
off at extremity of discoidal cell (in Cyclopides the first nervule in some 
species is very short, and runs into costal nervure) ; upper radial ner- 
vule originating close to fifth subcostal at extremity of cell, — loiuer one 
more or less attenuated, springing from junction of disco-cellular ner- 
vules ; discoidal cell long and narrow, the closing nervules very 
slender ; first onedian nervule often given off not far from base. Hind- 
wings short and blunt apically, longer, and usually more or less pro- 
minent or lobate (rarely broadly and lengthily caudate) about anal 
angle ; a longitudinal fold between sid)median and internal nervures ; 
subcostal nervure usually angidated near base, so as to touch costal ner- 
vure and to shut off from discoidal cell a small prediseoidal cell ; disco- 
cellular nervules exceedingly attenuated, sometimes imperceptible ; 
radial nervide much atrophied, occasionally wanting, — the space between 
second subcostal nervule and third median nervule being always nar- 
row ; internal nervui^e very long, extending to anal angle. Legs per- 
fect in both sexes ; fore-legs only differing from the others in their much 
shorter tibise, which bear inwardly (except in Cyclopides) beyond middle 
a flattened acute appendage or spur ; hind-legs almost always bearing, 
besides terminal spurs, a pair of similar {often shorter) spurs beyond 
middle ; all the tarsi long and stout, more or less spinulose inferiorly, 
their terminal claws and appendages small. 
Abdomen attenuated posteriorly, usually short (especially in 
seldom as long as inner margin of hind-wings, and very rarely longer. 
Larva. — Elongate, cylindrical, markedly attenuated anteriorly (tho- 
racic segments) ; head large, much widened superiorly. Usually naked, 
but sometimes thinly hairy. 
Pupa. — Elongate, rounded (rarely sub-angulated bluntly anteriorly); 
head with a median frontal more or less elongate acute projection; 
haustellum-case sometimes freely extending beyond wing-cases to a 
point far past extremity of abdomen. Attached by tail and by a free 
silken girth round middle, and also usually enclosed by other silken 
threads or in an imperfect open thin web. 
As may be seen from the characters italicised in the foregoing diag- 
nosis, the Hesperidce constitute a family very distinct from all other 
butterflies; their structure is indeed so peculiar, and in the main so 
constant, that they seem almost entitled to rank as a Sub-Order of the 
Lepidoptera. It is very noteworthy that, although their most striking 
characters — such as the large head, wide apart antenna, and four- 
spurred tibige of the hind-legs — certainly approximate them to moths 
{Heterocera) generally,^ it is not found, upon close examination, that the 
1 The c? of the Australian Euschemon Raffiesia (Macleay) — an unquestionable Hesperide 
— alone possesses the striking Heterocerous feature of a fully-developed bristle and loop 
linking the fore and hind wings near the base. (See vol. i. p. 15.) 
