500 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. in 



of the ordinary tineids, which have the palpi bent back into a horn and ending in 

 a point. The lack of a tongue distinguishes this species from the Noctuidae and 

 the Tortricidae; in the same manner as the shape, the simple antennae, and es- 

 pecially the length of the fringe of the hindwings, separate it from Bombyx; it is 

 allied, by this character and by several others, to the family Tineidae, among 

 which I will place it in the methodical table which will be published at the end of 

 this work. 



On the species. — The tineid hamiferella, Hiib., Zutr. 441-2, evidently belongs 

 to the same genus; I have two other species of them, which are in too 

 bad a state to describe. For Hiibner it is the genus Pinaris, which I would have 

 willingly adopted if it had been based on the palpi, and not on the colors of the 

 insect: one is able to see by his Catalogue of the known Lepidoptera, that the 

 majority of his Pinaris have short palpi of ordinary form. 



History 



I have only taken this species a single time; from which I conclude that it is 

 rare, at least it is difficult to find it during the day; that is why I have not been 

 able to study its habits. The name vilellus has been suggested to me by the po- 

 sition of the head, which resembles that of a menacing bull; if it is permissible to 

 compare an almost imperceptible creature with an animal so corpulent. 



July 1832. 



Fifty-five years later, Walsingham (1887a, p. 154) transferred the 

 questionable hamiferella from Pinaris to Acrolophus. 



It is apparent that the characters of the genus Acrolophvs as set 

 down by Poey in 1832 certainly do not all hold true for many of the 

 species now considered as belonging to that genus. His six generic 

 characters may be evaluated as follows: 



(1) "No tongue." Apparently true for all species. 



(2) "Antennae simple." Frequent exceptions to this condition 

 occur among the North American acrolophids, which exhibit a 

 number of markedl}^ different antennal types, including well-de- 

 veloped bipectination. 



(3) "Palpi very long." Applicable to somewhat less than half 

 of the North American species. 



(4) "Palpi recurved, lying on the back, and extending past the 

 tergum." Not true for the many species having shortened labial 

 palpi. 



(5) "Palpi with all the segments barbed up to the apex." Al- 

 though true, the value of such a character is questionable; the 

 labial palpi are completely clothed with scales in many groups of 

 Lepidoptera. 



(6) "Anal fringes long." Also true, but again a character of 

 questionable value; the adjective "long" is subject to a rather 

 wide range of interpretation, and the anal fringes are relatively long 

 in many groups of the Lepidoptera. 



Since the family is here considered to consist of but a single genus at 

 present, both the Acrolophidae and Acrolophus may be treated as one 



