SPILOTHYRUS. 
335 
The abdomen stout in proportion to the general size of the insect, 
the thorax wider than the abdomen and somewhat depressed. The 
position of the wings during repose is different from that of the 
butterflies of any of the other families, the hind wings being held in 
a horizontal position, and the fore wings only half erect ; the wings 
are never closed perpendicularly over the back ; the inner margin 
of the hind wings is not deflected, but is thrown into a slight fold, 
so that there is no canal for the reception of the abdomen. The 
flight of these insects is hurried and intermittent, and never steady 
or sailing like those of other groups. 
The Hesperidce are represented in every zoological region and 
subregion. Mr. Kirby’s Catalogue includes nearly a thousand 
known species and fifty-two genera. The Neotropical region has 
by far the greatest number of species, and the Nearctic region is 
richer in species than the Paleearctic to the extent of more than 
double the number occurring in the latter. Thirty-one species are 
given in Staudinger’s Catalogue as belonging to Europe proper, 
and besides these there are a great number of marked varieties, 
many of which are very likely specifically distinct. The European 
species are mostly sombre in colouring, being usually black and 
white, fulvous or grey, though the pattern of the wings is some- 
what striking in its arrangement in a few species. 
The family of Hesperidce is, by the common consent of ento- 
mological authors, placed at the end of the Rhopalocera, as being 
most closely allied to and leading to the Heterocera, with which 
some have proposed that they should be incorporated. 
In their transformations they resemble the genera Parnassius 
and Doritis among the Papilionidce, also Zegris among the Pieridce ; 
they likewise somewhat remind us of certain species of Satyridm 
which undergo their pupation on the ground. 
Genus 1.— SPILOTHYRUS, Boisd. Gen. Ind. Meth. p. 35 
(1840). 
Ekynnis, Schrank, Fauna Boica, ii. 1, p. 152 (1801). 
Nomen anterius et peferendum. 
Chakcharodus, Hub. Verz. bek. Schmett. p. 110 (1816). 
Characters. — Larva short, cylindrical, pubescent, the head 
large, hollowed out or cleft, the prothorax much contracted. 
