137 



BasycUra ? Firmimia of my catalogue, but not a true Dasy^ 

 chira ; and, as its changes in form and color in the larva state, 

 are very great and remarkable, I have called it Astasia, which 

 expresses its changeableness. At an early stage it has much 

 the appearance of tlie larva of B. opercularls, which, with 

 the injxidifcra, belongs to my new genus Lagoa (from hiywoq, 

 leporinus}, having a short and soft-haired body, like a rabbit 

 or hare. The genera Loplwcampa and ^Mc/ift^^es were formed 

 by me long ago, and I believe that I pointed out their pecu- 

 liarities and explained their etymologies when you were here. 

 They certainly belong to the Liparklce, on tlie border of the 

 Arctiadm, to which they closely approximate. Upon the latter 

 I have nothing to say, except that I wisli that the larva of 

 Boisduval's CallimorpJia ? Lceontei were known, whicli would 

 settle the genus, and its place. Nudaria, as it appears to me, 

 is very properly placed among the Lithosiadm by Boisduval ; 

 and after leaving the family I think we ought to enter the 

 Noctuce by AiJatela, and the genera similar to it, which Boisdu- 

 val includes among his Bomhycoides. 



I believe that I showed you a set of drawings of the ner- 

 vures of Lepidoptera which I made twenty years ago. They 

 contain most of the genera of our butterflies, about twenty 

 Bomhyees belonging to the nine families of my sketch in this 

 letter, and some Geometra^. These drawings have materially 

 assisted me in locating the families and genera, and given me 

 additional confidence in the arrangement which I have pro- 

 posed. I have also gathered some valuable hints in regard to 

 the details from Dennis and Schiffermuller's Wiener Ve'^'zeich- 

 niss, and from Boisduval's Icones des L^pidopteres nouveaux 

 d'Europe. Boisduval really appears to me to be the most 

 philosophical and best instructed of our modern Lepidopterists, 

 and I only regret that he has not given his views more exten- 

 sively, and applied them to Extra-European moths. 



I have compared my Psychomorjjha epimenis with the speci- 

 mens of Brephos parthenias and notha, which you sent to me; 



