Page:Jardine Naturalist's Library Foreign Butterflies.djvu/80

78 "It is an attempt," says Dr. Shaw, "to combine, in some degree, natural and civil history, by attaching the memory of some illustrious ancient name to an insect of a particular cast." The first Linnæan division consists of Equites, which are distinguished by the shape of the upper wings; these are longer, measured from their posterior angle to their anterior extremity, than from the same point to the base; the antennæ sometimes filiform. The equites are denominated Troes or Trojans, distinguished by having blood-coloured spots on each side of the breast: or Achivi, Greeks, which are without red marks on the breast, of gayer colours, and having an eye-shaped spot on the anal angle of the inferior wings. The second division consists of Heliconii, which are distinguished by having the wings narrow and entire, often naked or without scales; the superior oblong, the inferior very short. The third division consists of the Danai, so called from the sons and daughters of Danaus. They are divided into Danai candidi, or such as have whitish wings, and Danai festivi, in which the ground colour is never white, and the surface variegated. The fourth division consists of the Nymphales, distinguished by the edges of the wings being scolloped or indented; it is subdivided into N. gemmati, in which the wings are marked with ocellated spots, and N. Phalerati, without these spots. The fifth division contains the Plebeii. These are commonly smaller than the preceding butterflies, and are subdivided into