THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 157 



American tradition is followed, and the nomenclature adapted to this 

 classificatory view. The Bombycidce are characterized as a whole by 

 their ample wings and sluggish habit. The head is small and the oval 

 structure generally weak and undeveloped. The antennae are short, 

 rather than long, and oftenest pectinated in the male sex. The pieces of 

 which the thorax is composed present a somewhat different proportion, as 

 compared with other families of moths, and the thorax appears shorter 

 and also more elevated dorsally. The legs are weak ; the abdomen 

 cylindrical, untufted as a rule, and not exceeding the hind wings. The 

 habit of cocoon-making is carried to its greatest development in certain 

 groups, but the American sub-family Ceratocampince makes no cocoon, 

 the pupa lying naked in the ground. The strong characters which 

 mark certain sub-families, such as the Hepialince^ in the neuration and 

 thoracic structure, at first sight seem of family rank, but the general 

 fornix which must decide the question, according to Agassiz, enables us 

 to consider all these groups as interrelated and as the survivors of a 

 former complex in which there were fewer gaps. The arrangement of. 

 these groups in a linear series must proceed according to our ideas of 

 rank, and in this case it cannot be doubted that the Hepialhice are the 

 lowest. The classification of Harris is thus apparently more philosophic 

 than that of v. Hainemann and Speyer. 



I have only differed from Dr. Packard in eliminating the Honileu- 

 cincc, and in separating the Cossince and Hepidlince ; further, I have 

 placed the genus Crocata among the Arctimce; I have also rejected 

 Packard's genus Platycerura as not allied to Ceriira, but as probably an 

 Apateloid form. If we do not include this genus among the higher 

 Owlet Moths, it must find a place beside Dasychii-a. The moth itself 

 was one of my own earliest discoveries. I kept back from describing it 

 on hearing that it was to be published in the well-known Synopsis of the 

 family which shortly after appeared in the Proceedings of the Entomo- 

 logical Society of Philadelphia. 



The different sub-families of the Bombycidce show resemblances to 

 other families of moths : The Aj-ctiince are with difficulty to be separated 

 from the \o\\tx Zygcenidce; \hQ Psyc/iiince rnn cXost to certain Tineidce ; 

 the Notodo7itince resemble the Noctiiidce ; the CeratocampiiKZ the Sphin- 

 gidce ; the Cochliopodince the Tortricidce ; the F/atypterygince the Geo- 

 metridce. The Cossince and Hepialince are internal feeders in the larval 

 state, and thus resemble the yEgeriidce. Dr. Packard has most inter- 



