FAMILY GEOMETRID/E 
“ . . . The sylvan powers 
Obey our summons ; from their deepest dells 
The Dryads come, and throw their garlands wild 
And odorous branches at our feet; the Nymphs 
That press with nimble step the mountain-thyme 
And purple heath-flower come not empty-handed. 
But scatter round ten thousand forms minute 
Of velvet moss or lichen, torn from rock 
Or rifted oak or cavern deep : the Naiads too 
Quit their loved native stream, from whose smooth face 
They crop the lily, and each sedge and rush 
That drinks the rippling tide: the frozen poles, 
Where peril waits the bold adventurer’s tread, 
The burning sands of Borneo and Cayenne, 
All, all to us unlock their secret stores 
And pay their cheerful tribute.” 
J. Taylor. — Norwich, 1818. 
The Geometridce are a very large and universally distributed 
family of moths. There is no country where there is any vege¬ 
tation where they do not occur. Even in the inhospitable re¬ 
gions of the far North, upon the verge of the eternal ice, they may 
be found. They are.more or less frail in their habit, with con¬ 
siderable expanse of wing in proportion to the size of the body. 
They are semidiurnal or crepuscular. They have been character¬ 
ized as follows by Sir George F. Hampson: 
. . Proboscis present or rarely absent. Legs and tarsi 
slender, elongate, and naked, or slightly clothed with hair. Fore 
wing with vein i a forming a fork with i b. i c absent; vein 5 
from or from above middle of the discocellulars, 7 rising from 8, 
9. Hind wing with the frenulum usually present, but absent in 
a few genera. Vein 1 a very short, apparently absent in some 
forms; vein 1 b running to anal angle; 1 c absent. 8 with a well- 
developed precostal spur. 
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