LEPIDOPTERA. 
77 
similarity in the colouring of the male and female) used 
to frequent the fens of Cambridge and Huntingdon : the 
latter has been taken, many years ago, in Epping and 
Ashdown forests. 
The Hesperidw includes the “ skippers’’—so called 
from their short, jerky flight—of which there are seven 
British species ; all are of small size, and generally brown 
or yellowish in colour. The species belonging to this 
family approach the Heterocera , or moths, in some 
respects, both in form and habit; the body is thicker in 
proportion than is usual in butterflies, the tibia have 
only one pair of spines, like moths. In some species the 
fore-wings are erect while at rest, the hind-wings folding 
the body horizontally. The antennae are widely sepa¬ 
rated at their insertion on each side of the head; the 
larva spins a cocoon, as do many moths. Many of the 
species of Hesperidm are local. Thymele alveolus , the 
grizzled skipper, with wings nearly black, tinged with 
green, and sprinkled with white spots, is not uncommon 
in woods. 
The Heterocera, or Moth section of the Lepidoptera, 
may be divided into the nine following groups or 
families:— 
1. Sphingina. 
2. Bombycina. 
3. Noctuina. 
4. Geometrina. 
5. Pyralidina. 
6. Tortricina. 
7. Tineina. 
8 Pterophorina. 
9. Alucitina. 
