42 Studies on Life-history of Bomhycine 3Ioths. 



4. To obtain facts regarding tlie ontogeny of our native species 

 and genera, which when added to what we know of the life- 

 histories of European, Asiatic, and South American Boni- 

 byces, may lead to at least a partial comprehension of the 

 phylogeny of the higher Lepidoptera, viz., those above the 

 Noctuina and Geometrina, and the Microlepidoptera. 



Thus far \\^e have obtained facts sufficient, we believe, to enable 

 us to make a more natural classification than heretofore of the 

 families or groups of the Bonibj^ces and allied forms, and these 

 facts are in general, though not always, correlated with the char- 

 acters of the imagines. The Notodontidae appear to stand at the 

 base of the Bombycine series, the Ceratocampidae stand next above 

 them, and from the latter have arisen the Saturniidae and the Hemi- 

 leucidge, while the Cochliopodidse may have originated from the 

 Saturniidae, or an allied but extinct group. On the other hand, the 

 Lasiocampidae may have been the stem-forms from which the 

 Liparidse, Arctiidae, Lithosiidae, and Zygaenidae, with their allies, 

 have sprung. 



In describing caterpillars, particularly those of the Bombyces, I 

 have been particular to distinguish between the three thoracic and 

 the abdominal segments, because the former usually differ in the 

 number, arrangement, and relative size of the tubercles, warts, 

 and other markings, from the abdominal segments. The warts or 

 tubercles also are grouped into dorsal, subdorsal, and often a supra- 

 spiracular (though this may in some cases be the subdorsal row) 

 and an infra-spiracular row or series. 



The author hopes finally to embody in a monograph of the Bom- 

 byces, which he has in preparation, not only the following but other 

 descriptions. And he would be thankful to collectors and students 

 for the eggs and larvae needed to enable him to fill up the gaps in 

 our present knowledge of the group, also for such specimens for 

 illustration ; as the aim in the final monographic work is to illus- 

 trate, so far as practicable, each stage of each species, the earlier 

 stages to be drawn enlarged to the same proportions as the full- 

 grown larva, or larger, when the details need such enlargement. 



I have given below a list of the species and genera of which I 

 would like the eggs or larvae in different stages, and I venture to 

 indulge the hope that my friends will co-operate in rendering the 

 work as complete as possible — for without such aid no single person 

 can hope to make such a work at all complete or satisfactory. 



