324 A. R. Grote's Notes on the Zi/rjxnidse of Cuba. 



founded under the circumstances, it is all we have to provide for. To 

 be just, posterity will judge us by our own times, and not by the new 

 light that will be then shining on the different departments of Zoology. 



I here insert a few general remarks on the homogeneity of the 

 Zygaeniuae, and I may be the more readily excused for so doing, in 

 that the group is first illustrated in my present papers on Cuban 

 Moths, by an endeavor to practically arrange a portion of our numer- 

 ous inter-tropical American genera. 



In rising to higher considerations as to the internal arrangement of 

 the genera of Zygaeninae, we endeavor to select those which are most 

 extreme in the concentration or in the diffusion of their physical parts. 

 Taking the European genus Zygaena, as the comprehensive type from 

 which the genera recede above and below, we seem to terminate above 

 in Horauia, and below in Dioptis. Between these two lie the mass 

 of generic forms, which we can arrange the more readily when we 

 have appreciated the extremes. In selecting Horama, to lead the sub- 

 family, we look for the greatest concentration of parts, and the least 

 waste of material. Here the wings are strong and narrow, recalling 

 the higher ^Egeriidse and Sphingidae. The stout legs, impectinate and 

 thick antenna;, well developed head and thorax, the linear yet full 



votion to his science. These deserve to be carefully read by the student, while 

 they are worthy of the attention of the cosmieal Zoologist, or the more aesthetic 

 historian of the jirogress of the Natural Sciences. I know, indeed, that the 

 publisher of the work has stated, that he has occasionally altered the phrase- 

 ology (" Eigenthumliehen Sprache") of Hiibner, but I am of opinion that the 

 direct sense of Hubner's remarks is in every instance original, and bears the 

 evidences of the study and time which, from his extended works, he must have 

 devoted to his subject. We see, indeed, in the descriptional partof the Zutrsege, 

 which we may reasonably suppose, from his unacquaintance with the subject, 

 the publisher would leave untouched, sentences which are very roughly com- 

 posed, and even ungrammatically written, but which, by their sincerity and a 

 certain quaintness of expression, should disarm the critic. (Compare, on this 

 point, Ochsenheimer, Die Schmetterlinge von Europa, Einl, pp. 13 — 14. I do 

 not agree, however, with the conclusions expressed in the following sentence, 

 commencing: " Sein Sucht, ohne Noth neue Namen einzufuhren," etc.) 

 Hiibner may be considered as Boisduval, according to Prof. Poey, says: "el 

 mejor de los iconografos," — but not. in my opinion, as ungraciously added, by 

 way of antithesis, "el peor de los sistematizadores." Rather has he limned 

 with prophetic pencil, a sketch of the Sub-Order, to be filled out and perfected 

 by succeeding scientists, and, considering the times in which he wrote and the 

 generic conceptions of the period, his task was that of a great discoverer, of 

 whom we may speak with reverence, even if we cannot metaphorically apply 

 to him the wonts of Tasso, who writes of one more widely known: 



" avra ardimento 



All'incognito corso esporsi in prima." 



