NOTES ON THE ZYGiENIDJE OF CUBA. 



BY AUG. R. GROTE. 



Curator of Entomology, Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences. 



PART I. 



The Family Zygrcnidae, composed of those genera which oscillate 

 between the Sphingidas on the one hand, and the Bombycidae on the 

 other, has been characterized in a recent paper, in the Proceedings of 

 the Essex Institute, by Dr. A. S. Packard, jr. The few genera from 

 the Atlantic District, however, but feebly indicate its extent; it is when 

 we consider the numerous inter-tropical forms proper to the New World, 

 that we appreciate its value, and the family relationship of the genera 

 of which the European genus Zygsena, is the comprehensive type. 

 Leaving the Castniares, Boisd., of which I find but two genera repre- 

 sented in the present Collection of Cuban Lepidoptera, I but briefly 

 refer here to the Zygaeniuae, Pack., to which group the main repre- 

 sentation of the Family in Cuba is confined. In selecting the genera 

 to inaugurate this subfamily, I have been led to regard those as the 

 highest which, by their narrow form and vitreous wings, imitate the 

 higher iEgeriidze, and by receding from this type, I find that a very 

 natural arrangement is effected, the genera become more closely scaled 

 and broader winged, with often pectinated antennae, and affording an- 

 alogies with the Bombycidae. Thus from Horama, Hiibner, to Melan- 

 chroia, Hiibner, there is a constant change in the analogical featuies 

 of the genera, without any loss of affinity to a family type. In exam- 

 ining the structure of the genera, I am prepared to allow a high value 

 to the conformation of the basal abdominal segment. In all the genera 

 that I have examined, this ring is swelled laterally. In certain genera 

 this is very prominently the case, as, for instance, in Horama, Hiibner, 

 and (allicarus, Grate. In these the protuberance assumes a valvular 

 form, and the crust of the body is separated beneath, thus a tendency 

 towards the formation of an accessory abdominal articulated appendage 

 is developed, interesting in a homological point of view. In the high- 

 er genera it is also discolorous with the abdomen, and is thus a very 



