126 TRICHOPTERYGIDZ. 
Fam. TRICHOPTERYGIDA*. 
The Trichopterygide collected by Mr. Champion, and described in the following 
pages, form the most important collection of that family ever yet made by any single 
individual in a tropical country. It is not possible to praise too highly the perseverance 
and patient research expended in their pursuit, or the skill exhibited by Mr. Champion 
in their preservation. Throughout the whole of this numerous collection almost every 
specimen has been mounted in a manner which at once exhibits the characteristic 
differences of sculpture and outline so important in discrimination, and so difficult to 
display, a fact which every one who has made the attempt will readily confess. 
The greater part of the known genera of Trichopterygide, and two previously 
unknown, are represented among Mr. Champion’s captures. The species, of which 
twenty-seven were new to science, include many beautiful and interesting forms, and 
present every gradation of size from the microscopic Ptilium hornianum and Nanosella 
fungi up to Trichopteryx godmani, a species more than one half larger than any previ- 
ously discovered. That so many of Mr. Champion’s captures should belong to species 
then unknown cannot be at all surprising; such must ever be the case, when the 
Trichopterygide of an almost untried region are thus industriously hunted up, and 
while the study of a family so infinitely numerous and so generally distributed remains 
in its infancy. 
It is quite possible that some of those I have treated as new species may have already 
been described by Motschulsky, who many years ago published [ Bull. Mosc. xli. part 2, 
pp. 70 et seg. (1868)] an account of many Trichopterygide found by himself in Central 
America and elsewhere. But without types it is often impossible to recognize a species 
from his very short and imperfect descriptions. The death of Motschulsky was a serious 
loss to me, for nothing could exceed the kind liberality with which he would at all 
times supply types to assist a student; but since his collection has been placed in the 
Museum of Moscow the managers of that institution have persistently ignored my 
oft-repeated applications for the loan or exchange of types—a line of conduct 
unaccountable on the score of courtesy, and incompatible with the advancement of 
science. 
I have already [‘‘ Synopsis of North-American Trichopterygide,” Trans. Am. Ent. Soe. 
xi. pp. 113-156 (1884) | briefly described all the Central-American species known to me. 
To render, however, this work as complete as possible the descriptions are here given 
in full. 
The genera known to me may be grouped as follows :— 
Trichopterygina. 
Elytra truncate . 
Ptiliina. 
Elytra entire . 
* By A. Marruews. 
