THE CAJJADI^N ENTOMOLOGIST. 283 



with accessory cell rarely present in the fore wings, and it has vein 8 of 

 hind wings running parallel with cell fur half of cell's length, }iot united 

 with it, while vein 5 is a fold only, sometimes faintly evident at wing 

 margin, but disappearing before it reaches cell, or entirely absent. The 

 antennse, as Dr. Riley pointed out three years after he described his genus 

 Paleacrita (8th Mo. Report, p. 15 and 17), are nearly in agreement with 

 those of Erranis (Hybernia), but the spinose armature of the abdomen 

 prevents the entrance of the species under that genus and their antennal 

 structure from the genus Phigalia. Paleacrita, with the species under it, 

 will properly, I think, find its place among this group of the Ennominse, 

 which also includes the genus Conoides, Hulst, with its wingless female, 

 the type plumigeraria, having in both sexes the spinose armature of 

 abdomen, a feature apparently overlooked by Dr. Hulst. In my opinion, 

 Paleacrita should be placed at the beginning of the Ennominae, followed 

 by others of this group, in the same manner that Alsophila opens the 

 series of Hydriomeninse, for, it will be observed, the species under this 

 genus show, in individual cases, a tendency toward the recurrance of vein 

 5. It is interesting to note that a common point is thus established, from 

 which spring the two great divisions of the Geometrinse, thus pometaria, 

 purely Hydriomenid in venation of hind wings, sometimes loses the 

 accessory cell in fore wings, while vernata, as purely Ennomenid in vena- 

 tion of fore wings and in the separation from cell of vein 8 in hind wings, 

 does, in tlie latter, as I have stated, show an occasional vestige of vein 5. 

 What Dr. Hulst says, following my quotation above, as to the noctuiform 

 position of vein 5 under Paleacrita applies to pometaria, an observation 

 even more strongly accentuated in the type species cescularia, of which 

 through the kindness of Mr. L. B. Prout, I have an example. Under 

 Paleacrita there should be listed four species, viz., ver?iata, Peck.; 

 Merricata, Dyar; longiciliata, Hulst, and speciosa, Hulst. The $ 9 are 

 unknown, except in the case of vernata, where both sexes have the 

 abdomen spinose, but they are undoubtedly wingless in all. In the J ^ 

 the antennte vary in each, but may be generally defined as follows : Stalk 

 long and slender, nodose on each side, with fascicles of long curved cilise 

 from each nodule. In vertiata, two on either side of each joint, one in 

 each of the other species, hence the sepai-ation of Merricata as a variety 

 of z;i?r;/rt/rt and its establishment as a distinct species. In recent corre- 

 spondence with Mr. Meyrick, he stoutly maintains this as his opinion also, 

 and hopes to give its life-history in confirmation of it. 



