8 
SOUTH-AFRICAN BUTTERFLIES. 
Tliorax generally ratlier slender or moderately stout, sometimes 
robust. Wings large, variable in outline ; fore-wings usually rather 
truncate, but occasionally produced, — bind-margin entire, rarely elbowed 
superiorly ; subcostal nervure three- to five-branched, usually four- 
branched ; discoidal cell closed ; hind-wings rounded, with entire or very 
slightly denticulated hind-margin, or produced in anal-angular portion, 
which often bears from one to three longer or shorter tails ; inner 
margins often forming an incomplete groove about the abdomen ; dis- 
coidal cell closed by very slender nervule. Legs rather short, often 
thick, scaly, rarely hirsute ; tibial terminal spurs usually small, some- 
times minute, rarely wanting ; fore-legs of ^ (with rare exceptions) ivith 
tarsus not articnlated, hut consisting of a single long joint endi7ig in one 
slightly curved claw ; those of $ with the ordinary articulations and 
terminal hooked claws. 
Abdomen usually slender and rather short ; rarely thickened or 
elongate. 
Larva. — More or less onisciform, broadest and thickest about 
middle, often with dorsal humps or corrugated ; sometimes downy or 
with fascicles of hairs ; head and feet very small, inferior, hidden from 
view above. 
Pupa. — Short, thick, usually much rounded ; blunt at extremities. 
Attached by the tail, and (usually) by a girth of silk round the middle ; 
rarely unattached, and lying in the earth or under stones. 
This family is a very distinct, compact, and natural one, the char- 
acter of the unarticulated tarsi of the first pair of legs in the male sex 
being all but universal, and the principal other points of structure 
presenting but little variation. This sameness throughout so very 
numerous an assemblage of species renders the task of classification 
exceedingly difficult ; and no lepidopterist has hitherto found charac- 
ters adequate to warrant the establishment of divisions or sub-families. 
To discover natural limitations to the genera is a matter of scarcely 
less difiiculty; and all who have studied the family will admit that, 
notwithstanding the labours of Westwood, Hewitson, Felder, Moore, 
and other entomologists, the existing definitions of many of the accepted 
genera are anything but satisfactory. The work of discriminating spe- 
cies is an arduous one in all large genera, but it becomes specially so 
in such immense groups of closely-related forms as Lyccena^ Thecla^ and 
Aniblypodia, 
Between fifteen and sixteen hundred species have been recorded, 
and about forty-seven genera created for their reception, — the three 
genera just mentioned by themselves including fully half of the entire 
number of known species. 
Among the genera which show more divergence from the common 
type are specially noticeable the Oriental Liphyra and the Mvicd^nLiiotena, 
Fentila, Urhania^ P sender esia^ Alcena, Mimacrcea^ Beloneura, Arrugia, 
and Lachnocjiemaj all of which bear some resemblance to butterflies of 
