|
| After A. R. Grote, Natural
Science, vol. 12 (J. M. Dent
& Co.). |
| Fig. 67.—Neuration of
Wings in a Nymphaline
Butterfly. |
| 2, Sub-costal.
3, Radial.
4, Median.
5, Cubital.
6, 7, 8, Anal nervures. |
|
| Fig. 68.—Nymphalis jason. W. Africa. Upper and under surface. |
| |
| Fig. 69.—Larva and Pupa of
Apatura ilia. | Fig. 70.—Callithea sapphira. Brazil. |
The Nymphalidae are by far the largest and most dominant family of butterflies. In both sexes the forelegs are useless for walking (fig. 63), the tarsal segments being absent and the short shins clothed with long hairs, whence the name of brush-footed butterflies is often applied to the family. The neuration of the wings resembles that found among the Pieridae, but in the Nymphalidae the pupa, which has a double nose-horn (fig. 65)—as in Papilio—is suspended from the cremaster only, no girdling thread being present, or it lies simply on the ground. The egg is elongate and sub-conical in form and ornamented with numerous ribs, while the larva is usually protected by numerous spines (fig. 64) arising from the segmental tubercles. To this family belong our common gaily-coloured butterflies—the tortoiseshells, peacock (fig. 65), admirals, fritillaries and emperors. In most cases the bright colouring is confined to the upper surface of the wings, the under-side being mottled and often inconspicuous. Most members of the group Vanessidi—the peacock and tortoiseshells (Vanessa) and the red admiral (Pyrameis) for example—hibernate in the imaginal state. This large family is divided into several sub-families whose characters may be briefly given, as they are considered to be distinct families by many entomologists. The Danainae (or Euploeinae, fig. 66) have the anal nervures of the forewing arising from a common stalk, the discoidal areolets in both wings closed, and the front feet of the female thickened; their larvae are smooth with fleshy processes. The danaine butterflies range over all the warmer parts of the world, becoming most numerous in the eastern tropics, where flourish the handsome purple Euploeae whose males often have “brands” on the wings; these insects are conspicuously marked and are believed to be distasteful to birds and lizards. So are the South American Ithomiinae, distinguished from the Danainae by the slender feet of the females; the narrow winged, tawny Acraeinae, with simple anal nervures, thick hairy palps and spiny larvae; and the Heliconiinae whose palps are compressed, scaly at the sides and hairy in front. This last named sub-family is confined to the Neotropical Region, while the Acraeinae are most numerous in the Ethiopian. The Nymphalinae include the British vanessids (fig. 65), and a vast assemblage of exotic genera (figs. 68, 70), characterized by the “open” discoidal areolets (fig. 67) owing to the absence of the transverse “disco-cellular” nervules. In the Morphinae—including some magnificent South American insects with deep or azure blue wings, and a few rather dull-coloured Oriental genera—the areolets are closed in the forewings and often in the hindwings. The larvae of the Morphinae (fig. 71) are smooth or hairy with a curiously forked tail-segment. A similar larva characterizes the South American Brassolinae or owl-butterflies—robust insects (figs. 72, 73) with the areolets closed in both wings, which are adorned with large “eye-spots” beneath. The Satyrinae, including our native browns and the Alpine Erebiae, resemble the foregoing group in many respects of structure, but the sub-costal nervure is greatly thickened at the base (fig. 74). This sub-family is world-wide in its distribution. One genus (Oeneis, fig. 75) is found in high northern latitudes, but reappears in South America. The dark, spotted species of Erebia are familiar insects to travellers among the Alps; yet butterflies nearly related to these Alpine insects occur in Patagonia, in South Africa and in New Zealand. Such facts of distribution clearly show that though the Nymphalidae have attained a high degree of specialization among the Lepidoptera, some of their genera have a history which goes back to a time when the distribution of land and water on the earth’s surface must have been very different from what it is to-day.
|
| Fig. 71.—Larva of Amathusia phidippus. |
|
| Fig. 72.—Opsiphanes syme. Brazil. |
|
| Fig. 73.—Brassolis astyra. Brazil. |
|
| After A. R. Grote,
Natural Science, vol.
12 (J. M. Dent & Co.). |
| Fig. 74.—Neuration
of wings in
Pararge, a satyrid
butterfly. |
| 2, Sub-costal.
3, Radial.
4, Median.
5, Cubital.
7, 8, Anal nervures. |
| |
| Fig. 75.—Oeneis jutta. Arctic
Regions. | Fig. 76.—Bia actorion. Brazil. |
Bibliography.—The handsome Lepidoptera, with their interesting and easily observed life-histories, have naturally attracted many students, and the literature of the order is enormous. M. Malpighi’s treatise on the anatomy of the silkworm (De Bombycibus, London, 1669) and P. Lyonnet’s memoir on the Goat-caterpillar, are among the earliest and most famous of entomological writings. W. F. Kirby’s Handbook to the Order Lepidoptera (5 vols., London, 1894-1897) should be consulted for references to the older systematic writers such as Linnaeus, J. C. Fabricius, J. Hübner, P. Cramer, E. Doubleday and W. C. Hewitson. Kirby’s Catalogues are also invaluable for the systematist. For the jaws of the Lepidoptera see F. Darwin, Quart. Journ. Mic. Sci. xv. (1875); E. Burgess, Amer. Nat. xiv. (1880); A. Walter, Jen. Zeits. f. Naturw. xviii. (1885); W. Breitenbach, Ib. xv. (1882); V. L. Kellogg, Amer. Nat. xxix. (1895). The last-named deals also with wing structure, which is further described by A. Spuler, Zeits. wiss. Zool. liii. (1892) and Zool. Jahrb. Anat. viii. (1895); A. R. Grote, Mitt. aus dem Roemer-Museum (Hildesheim, 1896-1897); G. Enderlein, Zool. Jahrb. Anat. xvi. (1903), and many others. For scales see A. G. Mayer, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard, xxix. (1896). For internal anatomy W. H. Jackson, Trans. Linn. Soc. Zool. (2) v. (1891), and W. Petersen, Mem. Acad. Imp. Sci. St Petersburg (8) ix. (1900). The early stages and transformations of Lepidoptera are described by J. Gonin, Bull. Soc. Vaud. Sci. Nat. xxx. (1894); E. B. Poulton, Trans. Linn. Soc. Zool. (2) v. (1891); H. G. Dyar, Ann. New York Acad. Sci. viii. (1894); T. A. Chapman, Trans. Entom. Soc. Lond. (1893), &c. For habits and life-relations see A. Seitz, Zool. Jahrb. Syst. v., vii. (1890, 1894); A. Weismann, Studies in the Theory of Descent (London, 1882) and Entomologist, xxix. (1896); F. Merrifield, Trans. Entom. Soc. Lond. (1890, 1893, 1905); M. Standfuss, Handbuch der paläarktischen Gross-schmetterlinge (Jena, 1896); R. Trimen, Proc. Ent. Soc. Lond. (1898); E. B. Poulton, Colours of Animals (London, 1890); Trans. Entom. Soc. (1892 and 1903), and Journ. Linn. Soc. Zool. xxvi. (1898); F. E. Beddard, Animal Coloration (London, 1892). For distribution see H. J. Elwes, Proc. Entom. Soc. Lond. (1894); J. W. Tutt, Migration and Dispersal of Insects (London, 1902); Fossil Lepidoptera, S. H. Scudder, 8th Rep. U.S. Geol. Survey (1889). Among recent general works on the Lepidoptera, most of which contain numerous references to the older literature, may be mentioned A. S. Packard’s unfinished work on the Bombycine Moths of N. America, Mem. Nat. Acad. Sci. Philadelphia, vii. (1895), and Mem. Acad. Sci. Washington, lx. (1905); D. Sharp’s chapter in Cambridge Nat. Hist. vi. (London, 1898); G. F. Hampson, Moths of India (4 vols., London, 1892-1896), and Catalogue of the Lepidoptera Phalaenae (1895) and onwards; S. H. Scudder, Butterflies of New England (3 vols., Cambridge, Mass., 1888-1889); W. J. Holland, Butterfly Book (New York, 1899). Works on the British Lepidoptera are numerous, for example, those of H. T. Stainton (1851), C. G. Barrett (1893-1907), E. Meyrick (1895), and J. W. Tutt (1899 and onwards). For recent general systematic works, the student should consult the catalogues mentioned above and the Zoological Record. The writings of O. Staudinger, E. Schatz, C. Oberthür, K. Jordan, C. Aurivillius and P. Mabille may be specially mentioned.