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REVISION OF AUSTRALIAN LEPIDOPTERX—LIPABIDAE. 



By A. Jefperis Turner. M.D.. F.E.S. 



Whatever tlie cause, the study of the Bombycine Families of Lepidoptera has 

 been strangely neglect ed. No revision of the world-fauna of these groups has 

 appeared, although from the smaller number of species this would l>e an easier 

 task than it has been with the Noctiddae, Geometridae, Pyralidae, lortricidae, 

 and Tineidae. A revision of the genera is badly needed, and there has been 

 even considerable confusion as to the families. This perhaps is one of the rea- 

 sons why they have been neglected, though it has been to a large extent removed 

 by the researches of Sir G. Hampson, published in the tu'st volume of his Cata- 

 logue of the Lepi(kjptera Phalaenae and in his Moths of India. Another dififi- 

 eulty with regard to the Australian species is that so many of them have been 

 described by authors innocent of morphological knowledge, and are therefore 

 difficult of recognition. Fortunately, I ha\e been able to examine many Aus- 

 tralian types in the British Museum, and nearly all of the older species have 

 now been identified, and can be referred to their right positions. Since then I 

 have examined not only my own collection and that of the Queensland Museum, 

 but also many specimens sent to me by Mr. George LyeU, of Victoria, by Mr. 

 J. A. Kershaw from the National Museum, Melbourne, and by Mr. A. M. Lea 

 from the South -\ustralian Museum. Thanks to their generous help, and to 

 the permission of the Directors of these Museums, a very large amount of ma- 

 terial has been available for the purposes of this paper. 



Family LIPARIDAE. 



This family has also been known a-s the Li/maiitriadae. The older name was 

 abandoned under the impression that the generic name Liparix Oehs. was pre- 

 occupied, Imt it appears that this preoccupation was pre-Linnean, and conse- 

 quently inoperative. Formerly I enlarged the conc-eption of the family (Trans. 

 Ent. Soc, 1904, p. 470) to include the Tlypsidae and Anihelidae as subfamilies, 

 but I am now of opinion, for reasons which will be given presently, that the 

 three groups are better regarded as three families. 



The Liparidae may be defined as fdllows: — Tongue absent. Antennae bi- 

 pectinate to apex in d, and nearly always in 2 also. Head, thorax, abdomen, and 

 femora hairy. Forewings with 1 (usually known as Ic) absent. 5 approximated to 4 

 at origin, 8 and 9 always stalked, either from cell or areole. Hindwings with 

 frenulum present ; 1 absent, discocellulars angled. ,5 arising from below angle and 

 apjiroximated to 4, 6 and 7 usually stalked. 8 approximated and usually con- 

 nected with cell somewliere between i and middle, i-arely anastomosing. 



