RHOPALOCRRA. 
403 
these, we are not aware that any author has yet dealt with this point fully 
for any family of butterflies in India. 
The butterflies are extremely well known, and far more is written 
about them than other insects in India. Their life-histories have been 
worked out to a far larger extent than have those of other families and a 
great mass of information exists about this group. Bingham’s volumes 
in the Fauna enable every species to be identified and fix the nomen¬ 
clature, we trust, for many years. De Niceville and Marshalls’ Indian 
butterflies gives an account of the species of the Indian region, and it is 
necessary only to deal here with the species common in the plains ; the 
student will find ample details in the above volumes. For Pieridce and 
Papilionidce , the second volume of Butterflies in the Fauna should be 
used or the many papers published in India. A synopsis of the Hesperiidce 
has been recently published in Genera Insectorum, but Elwes and Watson’s 
papers and those of Doherty must be consulted. The pages of the Jour¬ 
nal of the Bombay Natural History Society contain abundant informa¬ 
tion and most readable articles; the descriptions of caterpillars by Bell, 
Davidson, Aitken, and de Niceville are of extreme value. For descrip¬ 
tions as for all identification and synonymy, the volumes of the Fauna 
of India by Bingham are taken as the latest authority and these are indis¬ 
pensable to students of this sub-order, who wish to be able to identify 
their specimens. The student should consult also the late Mr. L. C. H. 
Young’s papers on the common butterflies of India in the Bombay 
Journal for 1906-7, the beautiful plates of which will enable him to 
identify the plains species of Nymphalidce; these are being continued by 
Mr. T. R. Bell. 
For the recognition of our few species, it is unnecessary to discuss 
the fundamental structural details that underlie the family distinctions. 
There are six families of which one ( Nemeobiidce , Lemoniidce, Erycinidce) 
we may omit. 
The Nymphalidce have the forelegs reduced in both sexes and not 
used for walking. They include the majority of the butterflies. The 
Lyccenidce, Blues and Hairstreaks, are small insects, the male tarsus of 
only one joint, long. The Pieridce , Whites and Sulphurs, have all the legs 
similar, the claws bifid or toothed. The Papilionidce, Swallow Tails, 
are the large butterflies and are distinguished by having all the legs well 
developed with large simplej claws. The Hesperiidce, Skippers, are 
