Upper Side. Antennæ black. Head with five small white spots. Thorax, abdomen, and wings dark greyish brown; anterior wings having a cluster of five small oval transparent white spots placed near the middle of the wings, and three very small round spots of the same kind nearer the tips. Several faint dark spots are also dispersed on these and the inferior wings.
Under Side. Palpi above brown, beneath white. Breast, legs, and abdomen white. Anterior wings coloured as on the upper side. Posterior white, but along the anterior edges brown, where are three black spots placed on each wing. A row of brown spots is also placed along the external edges, and another row of very small ones above them. Margins of the wings entire.
The African species of Hesperiidæ (according to Mr. Smeathman), including those represented in these and the two following figures, sport in the sun, and are remarkable for their very sudden and rapid short flights from bush to bush.
HESPERIA (EUDAMUS) ORION.
Plate [XVII]. fig. 3, 4.
Order: Lepidoptera. Section: Diurna. Family: Hesperiidæ.
Genus. Hesperia, Latr. Fabr. Thymele P. Fabr. (syst. Gl.) Heteropterus, Duméril. Subgenus: Eudamus, Swains. Boisd.
Hesperia (Eudamus) Orion. Alis nigro fuscis, anticis fasciâ tenui maculari subbifidâ punctisque subapicalibus; posticarum limbo externo caudisque albis. (Expans. Alar. 2 unc.)
Syn. Papilio Orion, Fabr. Mant. Ins. 2. p. 85. No. 774. Cramer, pl. 155. f. A. B. Drury, App. vol. 3.
Papilio (Pleb. Urb.) Proteus, var. β. Linn. Mus. Lud. Ulr. p. 333. Enc. Méth. ix. p. 729. No. 4. (Hesp. O.)