GRYPOCERA. By Dr. A. Seitz. 
1027 
Grrypocera. 
There is nothing to be added to what has been said about this denomination in Vol. I, p. 329, and 
Vol. V, p. 833. It is entirely identical with the subsequent family of the Hesperidae to which we also reckon 
the genus Euschemon having been ranged by others among the Heterocera, in spite of their external resemblance 
to some Agaristidae. 
Subfamily: Hesperidae, Skippers. 
As to the general characterisation and biology of the Hesperidae we refer to the other volumes of Butter¬ 
flies (Vol. I, p. 329; Vol. V, p. 833; Vol. XIII, p. 505); we merely add some more special remarks on the Hesperidae 
of the Indian Fauna. 
The number of Indian Hesperid forms having been published until the conclusion of this work (1915) 
amounts to about 800, thus a remarkably much' smaller number than that of the American District comprising 
a much less extensive area. One of the reasons for it is that, as has already been stated at the place cited, 
the Hesperidae are very fond of tropical regions, their species and still more the number of then 1 individuals 
decreasing already in the subtropical regions, whereby they rapidly recede behind other lepidopteral families. 
And as the neotropical region is broadest in its equatorial district, whereas the Indo-Australian is narrowest 
there, the former offers the most favourable conditions for the development of this family, but the latter only 
very moderate ones. 
This difference is compensated to some extent by the fact that the two faunae mentioned exhibit a 
nature quite different in landscape and geographically. In the Indo-Australian Region the area being the most 
favourable for the Hesperidae, the tropical zone from about 10° northern to 10° southern latitude, is torn up 
by the formation of islands, whereas in America it is coherent. The Hesperidae are good on the wing; 
e. g. in America they are easily able to cross the whole continent, and as they are very constant and, being 
old forms, also already rather rigid, we find many American species of an enormous range in which they 
often seem not to undergo the least change by geographical influences. Species such as Calpodes ethlius 
are met with from the United States to Patagonia, and from east to west almost through the whole continent 
in entirely homogeneous specimens. In India, however, many islands of the Malay and Papuan Archipelagos 
are so distantly remote from each other that races could develop, and that is the reason why the small number 
of species of Indian Hesperidae is opposed to such a great number of races, the re-hybridation with the type 
being impossible in the islands, whereas in America the development of well distinguished races was impeded 
by the unchecked following of representatives of the typical form. 
On glancing over the two chapters on the Hesperidae of the east and west we perceive the great number 
of Indian forms being always comprised in a joint treatise, in contrast to the small number of American forms. 
Even if we take into consideration that our much more extensive knowledge of the geographical conditions 
of the Indian fauna and the personal views of the authors having thus far elaborated this fauna, in contrast 
with the mostly still quite unexplored inland regions of South America, have been of great influence here, yet 
the small number of races of American Hesperid species remains very distinctly opposed to the Indians. 
The decrease of the Hesperidae in the Indian Tropics compared to the other groups of butterflies relaxes 
considerably near the tropics, and both around the northern and southern tropics the Hesperid tribe increases 
distinctly. On an October day, when in Sydney the first spring lepidoptera use to swarm, the Toxidia perroni 
and doubledayi are the most numerous lepidoptera beginning to enliven the blossoming bushes of the ,,shrub“, 
the eucalyptus-woods and the extensive Spinifex-plains. And in the very same days when in Hongkong already 
