66 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [March, 



The tongue is generally well developed, long though slender. 

 In a few cases it is wanting. 



The ocelli are generally wanting, and are never prominent. 



The eyes are very uniform in character, being generally large, 

 globose, prominent and naked. 



The clypeus is variable in appearance, generally broad and 

 subquadrate. It is sometimes broader than long, and rarely very 

 narrow, with the eyes almost joined. It varies generally from 

 being flat to being well rounded, and is rarely tubercled. The 

 vestiture is generally scaly and close, but very often the front is 

 tufted, and rarely with hairs. 



The head, a? a whole, is generally large, prominent and free, 

 though in the Bombycoid forms there is a strong tendency to 

 retraction and smallness, as well as to a loss of the tongue, and 

 an increase in hairness and quantity of vestiture. 



The thorax is generally slender and weak. The vestiture is 

 generally loose. There is rarely a dorsal crest, more often low 

 posterior tufts. The patagiae are well developed, loose, fluffy. 



The wings are generally very large for the size of the body, 

 though frail. They are always present in the males, but in a few 

 cases are aborted or entirely wanting in the females. Ordinarily, 

 where present the wings have sharper apices and angles in the 

 females than in the males. The wings vary in shape from very 

 broad almost to lanceolate ; apices and angles are broadly 

 rounded, or extended and acute; margins even, angulated, in- 

 cised or eroded. They are generally covered with short scales 

 closely laid, as a rule; but these are often in part, sometimes al- 

 together, transformed into close-lying hairs. In a few cases the 

 wings of the males are ornamented with tuftings or pencils of 

 hairs. 



The venation is extremely variable ; far more so, probably, 

 than any other family of the Lepidoptera: both as the species 

 are compared, and in the individuals of the species. The fore 

 wings are generally 12-veined, though in individual specimens 13 

 are found, the last being along the costa nearer the base than 12. 

 Vein ii is very often wanting, so that many species have n veins 

 only, though this cannot be depended upon to any great extent 

 for classification, as in any specimen of the species vein 1 1 is 

 likely to appear. There are one or two internal veins. Vein 5 

 is generally from near the middle of the outer edge of the cell. 



