MEMOIRS OF THK NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 41 



setose Wiirts. lie luis ulso (I. c. Sept.. ISDt;) stated tliat the warts of rh>iiihi/.r vkh-'i in Stag-e I 

 are " small and degenerate, tint true warts of the typical Lasiocampid pattern " (p. liO). and 

 for this reason he associates the liondncida; with the Eupterotida;, Leinoniida% Lymantriidte, and 

 Lasiocanipida'. Grote" had previously (June. ISiKi) drawn attention to tlie close resemblance 

 of the warts of Endrumis, Stage I. to those of B. mori. Stage I, and claimed that both of the 

 families which these genera represent should be removed from tiie Saturniides and placed in 

 his superfamilv Hombvcides, wliich. iiow<"vei'. contains many families wiiicii at ])resent we sliould 

 exclude from the Syml)oml)ycina. In rearing and studying the transformations of Bralduxa 

 japonica it was found that the young larva before molting is armed with nuiltisetose warts of the 

 bomlncine type, and for tiiis and other reasons should l)e associated with the Bombycidas. even 

 though there are diti'erenccs in tl)e venation, especially the cubitus (•'median") vein. 



It has been throughout a decided mistake to attempt to classify the Lepidoptera on the 

 imaginal characters alone. As abundantly shown by Doctor Dyar and our own recent experi- 

 ence, the larval characters are the more fundamental and decisive: so also the pupal characters, 

 as shown by Doctor Chapman and myself, the egg also bearing as a rule characters which are 

 phjdogenetic. showing marks of kinshiji which can not lie overlooked. 



The distinguishing cliaracters of the Symliombycina are as follows: The head may be (Bom- 

 bycidiB) small, not prominent, or (Brahmandai) fairly large and ratlier prominent and moder- 

 ately wide between the eyes: palpi either reduced (Bombycidie) or well developed. 3-jointed, 

 though not reaching beyond the front. The antenna> have but a single pair of pectinations to a 

 joint, and these invariably droop, not spreading out laterally as in the Syssphingina, especially 

 the Saturniidie. The maxilhe are usually short and feeble; in B. ///"/■/ atrophied. 



The wings vary nuich in width and shape, while the medio-cubitus (•• median") vein is either 

 three or four branched. 



The eggs vary greatly in shape in different groups, being flattened oval in Bombycida?, 

 hemispherical in Brahniieida', and long cylindrical in Clisiocampa. Their shape in the Eurypte- 

 rotida; is unknown to us. It should be borne in mind that in the stem-forms the eggs of the 

 Ichthyurin;e are hemispherical, witli meridional ribs, the surface of the shell being ornamented 

 with pohgonal areas. 



The larvfe all agree in the peculiar shape of the head, a character which has been overlooked 

 by previous authors. It is broad, short, the sides parallel, not rounded, while the epicranial 

 suture is very short compared with that of the Ceratocampidw: also the epicranimn is more or 

 less distinctly swollen in fiont. on each side of the epicranial sutui-e, so that the clypeus is 

 sunken. I have thus far been unal)le to detect any characters of importance in the larval mouth- 

 appendages. The surface of the head is more or less setose, especially so in Lasiocampida> and 

 Bombveida?. (PI. XLIV, tigs. 2-7.) Besides the head-characters the larvae of the different 

 families all aoree in the armature. There ai'e among them no larva^ with unisetiferous tubercles 

 except in the first stage of the stem-form, Ichthyura, but as pointed out by Dyar, there are 

 several (about 6-12) setje: i. e., warts /, li, uV/ are multisetose. 



In the lchthyurina> the first larval stage is noctuiform; after the first or second molt the 

 warts become developed and bear two or several setie. The noctuiform characters are axnoded 

 had- in the phylogeny of the group. 



In the Eurypterotidic, so far as the larvie in this family are known, the caterpillar is densely 

 hairy, the warts multisetose like an arctian larva. Development is direct, and the group does not 

 become highly specialized. 



In the first to fourth stages of Brahma?ida? these hairy warts are. on the front and hinder 

 trunk-segments, greatly prolonged into horn-like appendages. In the last stage of Brahmiva the 

 body becomes smooth, unarmed, with mere vestiges of the horns of early larval life; in Endromis 

 and B. mori the body is smooth, though the Bombycida? vary in this respect, the body being 

 humped on three segments in Ocinara, and in TheophiJa huttoni tibdomiual segments 2-7 and 9 

 bearing each a pair of rather long erect tapering processes. 



« Die Saturniiden ' Nachtpfauenaugen), Mittheilungen ausdem Roenier-imiseiiiii, liildesheini, No. 6, Juni. 1896, p. 6. 



