vi HETEROCERA MOTHS 367 



elusive of Hepialidae) except the Eriocephalidae and Micropteiy- 

 gidae. The question is rendered more difficult by the very close 

 relations that exist between Micropterygidae and a sub-Order, 

 Trichoptera, of Xeuroptera. Dr. Chapman, by a sketch of the 

 classification of pupae, 1 and Dyar, by one on larval stages,' 2 have 

 made contributions to the subject ; but the knowledge of early 

 stages and metamorphosis is so very imperfect that the last two 

 memoirs can be considered only as preliminary sketches ; as indeed 

 seem to have been the wishes of the authors themselves. 



Simultaneously with the works above alluded to, Mr. Mey- 

 rick has given 3 a new classification of the Order. We allude, 

 in other pages, to various points in Mr. Meyrick's classifica- 

 tion, which is made to appear more revolutionary than it really 

 is, in consequence of the radical changes in nomenclature com- 

 bined with it. 



As regards the various aggregates of families that are widely 

 known in literature by the names Bombyces, Sphinges, Xoctuae, 

 Geometres, Pyrales, we need only remark that they are still 

 regarded as to some extent natural. Their various limits being 

 the subject of discussion and at present undecided, the groups 

 are made to appear more uncertain than is really the case. The 

 group that has to suffer the greatest changes is the old Bom- 

 byces. This series comprises the great majority of those moths 

 that have diurnal habits. In it there were also included several 

 groups of moths the larvae of which feed in trunks of trees or 

 in the stems of plants, such as Cossidae, that will doubtless prove 

 to have but little connection with the forms with which they were 

 formerly associated. These groups with aberrant habits are those 

 that give rise to the greatest difficulties of the taxonomist. 



The following key to the families of Heterocera is taken from 

 Sir G. F. Hampson's recent work, Fauna of British India Moths.* 

 It includes nearly all the families at present recognised among 

 the larger Lepidoptera ; certain families 5 not mentioned in this 

 key are alluded to in our subsequent remarks on the families : 



1 Tr. cnt. Soc. London, 1893, p. 97, with Suppl. op. cit. 1896, pp. 129 and 567. 



2 Amcr. Natural, xxix. 1895, p. 1066. See also Ann. jV. York Ac. viii. 1895, 

 p. 194, and Ent. Record, 1897, pp. 136 and 196. 



3 Handbook of British Lepidoptera, 1895. 



4 London, 1892. Published under the authority of the Secretary of State for 

 India in Council. 



5 Those numbered 2, 8, 10, 17, 22, 27, 44, and 46 in our arrangement. 



