15 



proposed in 1 he following classification will stand, remains to be determined 

 by any one who may undertake to elaborate the Phakvnid fauna of the world. 

 I have ventured only after careful observation of anatomical facts to unite 

 some of M. GueneVs families into larger groups, which may provisionally be 

 regarded as subfamilies. All through my work, the elaborate monograph of 

 M. Guende has been my chief guide. The students of moths are under 

 greater obligations to him than any other author. Next to his work 1 rank 

 Lederer's, which has been also of much use to me. 



Walker's "Lists of the Lepidoptera Heterocera in the British Museum" 

 simply follow GueneVs classification. A great opportunity was lost by the 

 authorities of the British Museum in the publication of a series of meagre 

 descriptions which have only brought maledictions on the head of the amiable 

 but uncritical author of the Catalogues. I have endeavored to do full justice 

 to the work, as stated in the introduction. 



§ 3. — Differential Characters of the Family. 



Body slight, long, and slender. Thorax rather small and weak, never 

 tufted or crested. Head small, quite free from the thorax, either moder- 

 ately long or very short. Compound eyes rather large, full, and spherical ; 

 simple eyes, two in number, often wanting. Front of the head rather nar- 

 row, usually decreasing in width toward the anterior edge, full and bulging, 

 rarely flattened, often with an acute, dense tuft projecting between the base 

 of the palpi. The clypeus is nearly square, forming nearly the whole front 

 of the head ; the antennas being inserted high up on the vertex; it is smooth; 

 in only one genus (Fidonia), so far as known to me, with a denticulated, 

 median, compressed tubercle; the epieranium is very small and short, often 

 only half as long as wide; while the occiput is a narrow, transverse piece, not 

 quite so long as the epieranium. Vertex not tufted, or with a low, flat, incon- 

 spicuous crest. 



Antennae either simple, with minute, fine cilia'"; more often with large, 

 dense cilia', sometimes like fine bristles ; or they are pectinated ; the branches 

 short, spatulate, and ciliated, or, more usually, well developed, sometimes long 

 and slender; the antennae sometimes plumose, but a single pair of branches to 

 a joint; the pectinations often wanting on the outer third or fourth of the 

 antennae. Palpi slender, porrect, nearly always passing beyond the front; the 

 second joint ^much longer than the others, moderately broad, usually passing 



