THE SKIPPERS. 
SOT 
2. Skippers. {Hesperiadce.) 
The butterflies of this tribe frequent grassy places, and 
low bushes and thickets, flying but a short distance at a time, 
with a jerking motion, whence they are called skippers by 
English writers. When they alight, they usually keep the 
hind wings extended horizontally, and the fore wings some¬ 
what raised, but spreading a little, and not entirely closed, 
as in other butterflies ; some of them, however, have all the 
wings spread open when at rest, and there' are others in 
which they are all elevated. Notwithstanding this difference 
in the position of the wings, the Hesperians all have certain 
characters in common, by which they are readily distin¬ 
guished from other butterflies. Their bodies are short and 
thick, with a large head, and very prominent eyes; the 
feelers are short, almost square at the end, and thickly 
clothed Avith hairs, which give them a clumsy appearance; 
the antennm are short, situated at a considerable distance 
from each other, -and in most of these insects with the knob 
at the end either curved like a hook, or ending with a lit¬ 
tle point bent to one side ; the legs are six in number, and 
the four hinder shanks are armed with two pairs of spurs. 
Their caterpillars are somewhat spindle-shaped, cylindrical 
in the middle, and tapering at each extremity, without spines, 
and generally naked or merely downy, with a very large 
head and a small neck. They are solitary in their habits, 
and many of them conceal themselves Avithin folded leaves, 
like the caterpillars of the thistle and nettle butterflies ( Cyn¬ 
thia Cardai and Atalanta')^ and undergo their transforma¬ 
tions AAithin an enA^elope of leaA^es or of fragments of stubble 
gathered together Avith silken threads. Their chrysalids are- 
generally conical or tapering at one end, and rounded, or 
more rarely pointed, at the other, neA’er angular or orna¬ 
mented Avith golden spots, but most often covered Avith a 
bluish-Avhite poAvder or bloom. They are mostly fastened 
by the tail and a fcAV transverse threads, Avithin some folded 
