Family HESPERIIDÆ
(The Skippers).
Generally quite small butterflies, with stout thorax. Both sexes have six feet adapted to walking. Tibiæ of hind legs, with few exceptions, have spurs. Lower radial of hind wing in many genera wanting, being represented by a fold in the wing. Eggs hemispherical, flat on base. Larvæ cylindrical tapering from the middle before and behind, with large globular heads, smooth. Chrysalids generally formed on the ground or among leaves and rubbish lightly tacked together with a few strands of silk, in which the cremaster is caught.
A large family, most numerously represented in the tropics of both the Old and New Worlds. About three thousand species are known, of which over one hundred occur within our limits.