NORTH AMERICAN LEPIDOPTERA. 93 



THE PHV€ITID^ OF IVORTH A9IEKICA. 



BY GEO. D. HULST. 



The object of this paper is to give a compilation of what has been 

 published upon the Phycitidse of North America, together with what 

 has been learned by personal investigation and study. 



In the study of the family several difficulties have presented 

 themselves : 



First. Nearly three- fourths of all the types of the species are in 

 European Museums, and nearly or quite half in private collections. 



Second. The material f(»r study has been comparatively small. 

 The species have been less collected than in any other family of the 

 Lepidoptera. No one has given them systematic and careful study, 

 and no means have existed for the determination of species. Col- 

 lections are few, very incomplete, and almost entirely without names 

 for the insects by chance gathered together. 



Third. The literature upon the subject while not voluminous, is 

 very fragmentary, and is found in large part in various foreign peri- 

 odicals, and in privately printed and circulated foreign papers. 



I have, however, been able to give personal study to the greater 

 part of the species, and I hope whatever be the incompleteness of 

 this paper, that it will serve to stimulate interest and study in the 

 family, and make it possible for Americans to know a little more of 

 this hitherto neglected portion of the fauna of this country. 



The Phycitidffi are a family of moths belonging to the super-family 

 Pyralidte. The hind wings have three internal veins, and the familv 

 is thus separated from the Macrolepidoptei'a. None of the internal 

 veins of the fore nor hind wings are furcate at the base, the cilia of 

 the hind wings are comparatively short, and the.'^c wings never lan- 

 ceolate, and in one or more of these distinctions the family is sepa- 

 rated from the Galleriidte, Tortricidse and Tineidfe. The maxillary 

 palpi di) not lie closely on the porrect labial palpi, or are not broadly 

 scale tufted, and the family is thus separated from the Crambida?. 

 The lower median vein of the hind wings has a pectination of long 

 hairs at and near the base above, and the family is thus separated 

 from the Pvralididtie. 



