Page:Jardine Naturalist's Library Foreign Butterflies.djvu/260

200 URANIA.

already mentioned, Urania is distinguished from all other groups, except Thaliura, by the shape of the antennæ, and an obvious character for separating it from that is the presence of only a single tail. The palpi are short and project a little beyond the head, the terminal joint being nearly naked. The tibiæ of the anterior legs are furnished with spines in the middle; and the claws are minute. When at rest the anterior wings are kept in a horizontal position, or but slightly turned upwards; one peculiarity among many others in which they resemble the nocturnal lepidoptera. We are indebted to Mr. Macleay for an account of the metamorphoses of a species which he has named U. Fernandinæ) but which is probably synonymous with some previously known. The caterpillar feeds on a kind of Omphalea which grows abundantly on the sea-coast of Jamaica. It never appears during the heat of the day, but reposes in a torpid state within a thin transparent web on the under side of the leaves, in order to avoid the rays of the sun. Its only time of feeding is during the night. In its appearance and habits it shows more affinity to the larvæ of the Bombycidæ than to the diurnal Lepidoptera. When about to change to a chrysalis