20 JOHN B. SMITH. 



of bibliography is made, but a reference to faunal monographs of 

 families or groups would have added greatly to the value of the 

 work and would not have taken much more space. As authority 

 for specific rank it must be very cautiously used, in our fauna at 

 least. With the family groupings, or rather the grouping of genera 

 into families I disagree entirely. No series of insects affords better 

 opportunities for family divisions on structural characters than do 

 the Bombyces, and, to our shame be it said, in no series is the classifi- 

 cation so utterly superficial, so completely at variance with all scien- 

 tific bases than just here where the work is easiest. I do not believe 

 that more than half a dozen of the twenty-nine families accepted are 

 capable of clean scientific definition. This is not Mr. Kirby's fault 

 of course; it is, however, disappointing that the catalogue not onlv 

 makes no advance in the matter of classification, but does not even 

 accept sharply limited groups where they have been so well defined 

 that recognition is easy. I realize, of course, that Mr. Kirby could 

 not in all cases make even a good guess at the real location of some 

 of the described forms; but this does not aflfect the criticism made, 

 since the bad associations occur also among fi)rms well represented 

 in the British Museum. 



To bring out somewhat more sharply the contrast between Mr. 

 Kirby's work and the arrangement adopted in my recent list, which 

 embodies the results attained by American students, I give in serial 

 form the species credited to our fauna as they stand in the catalogue ; 

 while to show, in a measure, the proportion of our own forms to 

 those of the world, I retain Mr. Kirby's numbering to families, 

 genera and species. 



Family I. CASTNIIDJE. Family IV. AGARISTID^. 



Genus 17. PSBUDALYPIA Hv. Edw. 



C4enus MBGATHYMUS Scudd. 



1. crotchii-' Hy. Edw. 

 var. ntrnta Hy. Edw. 



1. yuccse* Bdv. Lee. 



2. cofaqui Stik. 

 :i. neumoeg-eni Hy. Edw. Genus 18. ALYPIODES Grt. 



1. crescens-s Wlk. 

 Family II. COCYTIID^. Alyina grotei Bdv. 



Not represented. Ahjpiodes flaviUngms Grt. 



Genus 19. ANDROLOMA Grt. 

 Family III. URANIID^. j. lorqninii* G. ^ E. 



Not represented. 2. maccullocliii Kirby. 



* Indicates that the species is the type of tlie genus. 



