HESPEItIDiE. 
165 
species with bold dashes of color, lacking that soft blending so char¬ 
acteristic of most of the moths. 
The butterflies, too, though strong and rapid of flight many of 
them, have much smaller bodies generally in proportion to the size 
of the wings than the moths. The eyes are usually well developed, 
and the tongue is sufficiently long to enable the insect to extract the 
sweets from flowers, or sip moisture from the ground. The legs of 
butterflies are usually well developed, except in the Nymphalidce , 
where the first pair are nearly aborted. 
HESPERIDCE. 
Skippers. 
The most moth-like of all butterflies are the Hesperidce , a group 
containing a host of small, plain-colored insects, usually very abun¬ 
dant in our fields and meadows. 
These insects are stout-bodied creatures with large heads, promi¬ 
nent eyes and hooked or pointed antennae, suggesting those of the 
Sphinx moths, placed wide apart at their base. The palpi are 
thick and hairy, making them look blunt and clumsy. The lower 
wings, while the insects are at rest, are often spread horizontally, 
while the forward pair are raised nearly vertically above the back. 
In coloring, they are usually very plain, black, brown and tawny- 
yellow predominating in our native insects. A few of the tropical 
species, however, are gayly colored. Some of the species bear tails 
similar to those on the lower wings of the Papilios. The flight of 
these insects is rapid, but generally continued but for short distances 
at a time. The jerking manner of their movements, with their rest¬ 
less darting from place to place, has earned for the group the com¬ 
mon name of skippers. They are lovers of flowers, and the fields of 
clover, the blossoms of milkweed, elder and various lowland shrubs 
and plants usually swarm with them. 
The larva of the Hesperidce is cylindrical in the middle, tapering 
toward both ends. It has a large head placed on a narrow neck, 
which gives it a most peculiar appearance. It is smooth, naked, or 
at the most, downy and usually of dull and sombre tints. It is 
solitary in its habits, and is largely a night feeder, inhabiting by day 
a neatly constructed nest made of silken threads inside a curled leaf. 
When not feeding, the larva retreats into this nest, and its large, 
hard head acts as an operculum, completely filling the entrance and 
