A Classification of Lejndopterous Larvae. 203 



am aware, and it has been stated that it could not be defined.^ 

 Nevertheless, Dr. Packard has very recently prepared a list of the 

 families of the Bombyces,^ following in the main the old lines. It 

 is only necessary to compare his list with the following synopsis of 

 families to show how completely at variance the two systems are. 

 In fact, a more miscellaneous aggregation of families could not well 

 be imagined than the so-called "Bombyces," judged by the standijrd 

 of my classification of the larva?. ^ 



Synopsis of the Families of Lepidopterous Larv^.* 



A More than one tubercle on the third annulet and more than six above the 



base of leg Jugatae 



Hepialidae 

 AA Not more than one tubercle on third annulet and only six above the base 



of leg Frenatae 



B Three tubercles on middle annulet, none on the third ; tubercles iv and v 



approximate ; two thoracic shields Psychidae 



BB Not more than two tubercles on middle annulet and usually one on 

 third annulet ; one thoracic shield (prothoracic). 

 C Tubercles iv and v approximate or consolidated. 



Generalized Feenat^ 



D Tubercles simple, single haired Cossidae, Pyralidina, 



Tortricina, Tineina (in part), Lacosomidae, Sesiidae 



DD Tubercles absent, as well as all legs Tineina (in part) 



DDD Tubercles modified, many haired. 



E All present but tubercle i Pterophoridae 



EE Subventral tubercles also reduced ; only three left. 



Pyromorphidae, Megalopygidae 



EEE Substigmatal tubercle absent; only two left Eucleidae 



CC Tubercles iv and v remote^ Specialized Frenatae 



F Tubercles all present or with but slight tendency to unequal reduc- 

 tion, setiferous, or equally reduced. 



1 J. B. Smith, List Lep. Bor. Amer., p. iv ; Neumoegen & Dyar, Journ. N. Y. 

 Ent. Soc, I, 97. 



2 Journ. N. Y. Ent. Soc, I, 6 (1893). 



3 "The family Bombycidie would certainly never have been formed if the 

 larval structure only had been taken into consideration. . . . Are the im- 

 agines of the genera united under this family, at any rate morphologically, 

 as unequally related as their larvae ?" Weismann, Studies in the Theory of 

 Descent, vol. II, p. 442. 



^ Families which have been omitted have not been examined. 



5 In the higher forms, where the tubercles begin to be lost, iv may dis- 

 appear, leaving the remaining tubercles in essentially the same arrangement 

 as those in the section above, where the consolidation of iv and v is complete, 

 and where vii has disappeared. 



