1865.] 35 



rudeness a wide latitude of interpretation. I need no excuse for using 

 his generic term Erinnyis, under which he has arranged perfectly 

 homogenous material ; the elimination of the very natural genera 

 Ambxdyx and Philampelus had escaped his penetration. 



In 1839 Dr. Harris published his " Catalogue of North American 

 Sphinges."* In this the author has erected the genera Philampelus 

 and Ceratomia. The systematic generic arrangement is I believe de- 

 fective, while under the term " Sphinges," distinct families are massed 

 together, in accordance with an idea which originated with Linnaeus, 

 although these are really destitute of structural affinities, as I have 

 already stated. 



In 1856 Mr. Walker revised this Family in the " Catalogue of Lepi- 

 doptera Heterocera," published by the British Museum. Still retain- 

 ing the ^geriidae as part of a Division which cannot rank as a Family, 

 the Sphingulse. are introduced in conjunction with foreign elements, 

 and not received as a Family equivalent to the Zygsenidse^ Bomhycidse,, 

 or other natural associations of genera as understood by Latreille, and 

 to which the latter gave the proper significance of a Family name. 



The arrangement of the genera, and the description and identification 

 of the species, appear to me generally felicitous and satisfactory; the 

 style in which the subject is treated by Mr. Walker, the industry 

 shown in the compilation of the synonymy and the conscientiousness 

 displayed in investigating questions of priority are worthy of acknow- 

 ledgement, while the evident endeavor to insist on generic values, con- 

 trasts favorably with the looseness in generic reference displayed by 

 many writers on the Lepidoptera. 



From my material I have been able to differ from Mr. Walker, as 

 will be seen by a reference to the synonymy I have adopted, as to cer- 

 tain of his specific determinations. 



In the same year (1856) in which that Part of the British Museum 

 Lists which contains the Sphingidae was issued. Prof. Burmeister f 

 published a quarto pamphlet on the Sphingidae of Brazil. 



In this the genera Protoparce and Diloplionota are erected, neither 

 of which I have adopted, for the reasons that the latter is a generic 

 term erected at the expense of Erttmyis, Hiibner, while the former 



* Descriptive Catalogue of the North American Insects belonging to the Lin- 

 naean genus Sphinx, in the Cabinet of Thaddeus William Harris, M. D., Libra- 

 rian of Harvard University. American Journal of Science and Arts, No. 2, 

 Vol. .36. 



f Systeraatische Uebersicht der Sphingidae Brasiliens, von Professor Bur- 

 meister. Halle, 1856. 



