2 Journal Xew York Entomological Society, t^'o'- xxii. 



size and vestiturc of the palpi is much used but they are movable 

 and caution must therefore be used. The basal joint varies a little 

 in size but gives no good characters. The second may be either 

 straight or upturned, in the latter case it is concave on the upper 

 side, enabling the character to be used, even in dead specimens where 

 the palpus has fallen forward. The third joint varies in size and 

 vestiture, but its position is generally unimportant. Where state- 

 ments are given of the relation of it to the vertex it is understood 

 as applying in the position taken in life, with the second joint closely 

 applied to the frontal vestiture, and the third erect or recurved. 



The maxillary palpi can only be seen when the labial palpi are re- 

 moved; in the Acronyctinae and many Quadrifidse they are easily seen 

 from in front ; in the Xoctuinse they are smaller, and covered by the 

 pilifer, or rudimentary mandible, and its bristles; they are attached to 

 the sides of the base of the tongue. 



The tongue is considered as rudimentary when shorter than the 

 thorax. Such tongues are also weak and slender, and may be recog- 

 nized with a little practice without uncoiling. 



The vestiture is the covering of hair and scales, and the charac- 

 ters here used are drawn from the top of the thorax. It is of five 

 principal types: (i) scales, broad to the base, then narrowing abruptly 

 to the knob that fits in a socket in the skin; (2) spatulate scales, and 

 short spatulate hairs, formed of a broad end, attached by a hair-like 

 base some three or four times its length, or in most cases many times 

 its length. In these cases the scale-like tips may be imbricated and 

 give the appearance of simple scales; (3) flattened hairs, in which 

 the broadened part is many times as long as wide; and (4) simple 

 hair, which is not flattened at all, but occasionally ends in a minute 

 blunt or bifid tip. Besides these main types Eriopus shows a very 

 long scale, which tapers gradually to the base, and many Pachnobiae 

 have deeply forked bifid or trifid hairs that seem simple until pulled 

 out. 



The legs almost always show a fringe of hair on the femora, 

 easily rubbed off in most of the slender species, and the tibice also 

 are roughly hairy in the stout kinds, but this is not considered in 

 these tables unless forming a mass larger than the tibia itself or 

 capable of fanlike expansion. 



The tufting of the body is much used. The noticeable hair arises 



