9 2 
INSECTS. 
wings. One of the rarest British butterflies is the black-veined white {Aporia 
cratcegi), shown in all stages of development in the illustration on the preceding 
page. Its caterpillar feeds on the leaves of the blackthorn and other bushes. Of a 
foreign representative of the group, the black-tailed sulphur ( Dercas verliuelli), an 
illustration is given in the coloured Plate, No. 2 from the left lower corner. It 
is nearly allied to the common brimstone butterfly (. Rhodocera rhctmni), so 
abundant in spring in English lanes and hedgerows. 
The Skippers,— Family Hespeeiidje. 
This family differs from all the others in the broad, thick head; the hind tibia 
(with some few exceptions) being armed with two pair of spurs. There are 
hundreds of species belonging to this interesting family, the majority being 
indigenous to South America. Many are distinguished by their powerful build, 
brilliant colours, and long-tailed hind-wings. The European species are all small, 
and more or less sombre coloured, averaging about an inch across the wings. In 
the puss-tailed skipper ( Goniurus catillus) of Brazil, the front-wings are brown 
on the upper side, with five or six pale yellow spots; and the hind-wing also 
brown, and ending in long, broad flat tails, quite as long as the hind-wing itself. 
The antennae are strongly hooked at their apex. Telegonus alardus, from 
Venezuela, has large wings, 2 inches across, brown, shot at their base with blue 
and green, but only very slight tail-like prominences on the hinder-wings. To 
Famphila and the following genera belong all the small, quick-flying butterflies, 
known as the skippers, properly so called. When at rest manj^ of these insects 
raise the upper-wings, leaving the lower ones horizontal, a habit not unknown 
among butterflies of other families. The Lulworth skipper (P. actceon ) is a rare, 
or rather local, small brown skipper, confined in England to a few spots along the 
south coast. Amongst others are P. silvanus, the large skipper, P. linea, the small 
skipper, and P. lineola, the scarce small skipper lately added to the British list. 
The dingy skipper belongs to another genus ( Nisoniades ), as does the chequered 
skipper (Cyclopides). The grizzled skipper {Hesperia malvce ) is a black or brown 
butterfly, with white spots on the upper side, common in England in summer. The 
silver-studded skipper ( H. comma ) is confined to some of the midland and southern 
counties of England, though abundant on the Continent. Figures of this butterfly 
will be found in the illustration on p. 89, and on the coloured Plate, No. 3 from 
the top right corner. 
The Moths, —Suborder Heterocera. 
Since limitations of space will only admit mention of a few of the genera and 
species of butterflies, w r e pass on to the moths, in which the antennae are of many 
different forms, but never distinctly clubbed. Moths are vastly more numerous— 
both in genera and species—than butterflies; and, as already observed, are for the 
most part nocturnal insects. The other distinctive features having been already 
mentioned, we proceed to the first family of the group. 
