360 PROCEEDINGS OP THE ACADEMY OF 



ceeding the face, ascending to its middle, rather slender, clothed thickly with 

 rather appressed scales ; apical joint rather stout, small, ovate and smooth. 

 Tongue as long as the palpi. 



C. Pomonella. Fore wings umber brown, with a slight coppery 

 hue, varied or marbled with pale grayish. The ocelloid patch is very large, of 

 a fine, deep brown color, with an external and internal streak of bright metal- 

 lic-hued coppery scales, the latter having internal patches of black scales. 

 Hind wings fuscous, with a coppery hue. 



I can perceive no difference between this and the descriptions of the Euro- 

 pean representative of this species. The larva of both is of a pale pinkish 

 color, and feeds on the fruit of the apple and the pear. The species has proba- 

 bly been introduced from Europe into the United States. 



Ioplocama. 



Fore wings with a rather large, distinct ocelloid patch ; nearly as broad 

 at the base as across the inner angle ; costa regularly arched from the base ; 

 tip obtuse ; hind margin obliquely rounded ; apical vein simple ; disk rather 

 above the middle of the wing, with secondary cell, median vein straight, sub- 

 costal curved towards the end. The hind wings are broader than the fore 

 wings, ovate ; external margin slightly dilated in the middle ; subcostal 

 branches connivent ; discal vein arched ; medio-discal on a short erect stalk 

 and the superior branch of the median vein furcate about the middle. 



Head rather smooth ; with ocelli. Faae broad. Eyes rather small, promi- 

 nent. Antennae setaceous, with very minute dilations. Palpi exceeding the 

 face by rather more than one half their length, slightly ascending and porrected, 

 very thickly haired beneath, with a distinct tuft to the basal joint; mid- 

 dle joint with the hairs towards its tip, longer than the rest, and directed for- 

 ward, almost smooth above; apical joint minute, and almost concealed in the 

 terminal hairs of the middle joint. Tongue scarcely as long as the palpi. 



I. formosana . Fore wings dark brownish, with a most beautiful bluish- 

 violet reflection, when viewed from the hinder margin to the base, irrorated 

 with ferruginous brown. The costa toward the tip, as well as at the base, 

 ferruginous-brown, the former streaked with dull silvery. Ocelloid patch, 

 rather large, with two black central streaks and an internal dull silvery streak ; 

 the external silvery streak is connected with the third costal streak, which is 

 extended obliquely to it. The costa from the middle to the tip, is geninated 

 with yellowish. Hind wings dark fuscous. 



From Mr. Kennicott, 111. 



This group of insects is probably the most difficult, in a systematic point of 

 view, and the least interesting family in the order of Lepidoptera. The impres- 

 sion I have derived from the study of it, induces me to believe that it is owing 

 chiefly to the artificial system by which it is at present interpreted, and which 

 I have endeavored to follow in this paper. Numerous families, or so-called 

 families, have been arbitrarily instituted on the most trivial and untenable 

 characters, some of which are only sexual peculiarities, while ornamentation 

 appears to be a far more important element than structure, in the diagnoses by 

 which they are characterized. Such an arrangement possesses a certain 

 amount of convenience, inasmuch as it frequently enables the student or 

 inquirer to limit the probable number of genera to which an insect he may 

 wish to classify may belong. This, however, is its total significance, and 

 even in this respect it is often deficient and deceptive. This is a system of 

 convenience and not of nature, which works on categories of structure and re, 

 cognizable conceptions or ideas. 



In my own view, from which, doubtless, many naturalists will dissent, orna- 

 mentation is purely an individual characteristic of species, and although in 

 general sufficiently constant, subject to a degree of variation in the same spe- 

 cies that is often very considerable. Why should that which is unstable in 



[Aug. 



