LIBRARY

LEPIDOPTERA 497
radlus'five, Rs
FIG. 164. Wing venation of the monarch butterfly, Danaus menippe (HUbner), and head
of same. A, antenna; C, eye; P, proboscis or maxillre; LP, labial palpus. (From Insects of
Western North America.)
Fa.mily HESPERIIDlE 1 Leach 1815, 1819 (Hes'per-i'i-dm, from the Greek
'Eu1rEploEs, daughters of the night or evening; referring to the crepuscular
habits of the adults and nocturnal habits of the larvce). German, Dickkopft.
French, Hesperiides. Skippers.
Small to medium-sized, short, stout. mostly somber-colored butterflies
which frequently hold the wings partly opened at rest. The bodies and wings
are often quite hairy and scaly; the colors are various combinations of black,
gray. brown, tan, and orange, and some forms are brilliant and metallic. Head
large; antennre clavate and hooked beyond the apical club and ending in a dull
or sharp point; eyes partly covered with hairs; palpi three-segmented. porrect
or upturned. Fore wings with all the veins separated; frenulum and frenulum
hook normally absent. Forelegs well developed in both sexes; tibire usually
spurred, fore pair also with pads; claws short and thick; empodium present·
1 The members of this family have also been placed in lhe family URBICQLIDJE Tutt
1906 and in thE: separated suborders NETOCERA Eaase 1891. Spuler 1908, and GRYPO­
CERA Reuter 1896, Seitz 1909.