88 HAUSTELLATA. — I.EPIDOPTERA. 



Family I.— LITHOSIID.?^ mihi 



Aiitennw moderate, very slender, setaceous, sometimes pectinated or ciliated in 

 the males: palpi not longer than the head, cyhndric, terminal joint as short 

 as, or shorter than, the second : maxillw p;enerally longer than the head : wings 

 horizontal, somewhat elliptic, the posterior much folded, the anterior without 

 stigmata: thorax not crested: IhuIji slender. Larva fusiform, sometimes 

 hairy, with sixteen legs, solitary, either residing in a common web, or sub- 

 cutaneous : pupa generally folliculated. 



The insects comprised in this family were arranged by Linne 

 either amongst the Tinese, Bombyces, or Noctuse; and the accu- 

 racy of such arrangement evidently accords with nature, as it ap- 

 pears to me tliat their resemblance in certain particulars with the 

 three groups results entirely from the station they apparently oc- 

 cupy in the scale of creation, and which the system of Mr. MacLeay 

 so beautifully illustrates. Callimorpha is doubtless allied to the 

 Arctiidae, through tlie medium of Hypercompa; Eulepia and Deio- 

 peia to the Tineida?, and the remaining genera to the Noctuidse : 

 but I conceive that the affinity of the three genera here named is 

 not sufficiently close to warrant their being placed in either of the 

 three families alluded to, but that all agree sufficiently with each 

 other, and moreover have so many characters in common with the 

 Noctuidse, as to justify their union as a family among the Nocturna. 



As in the Nocturna generally, the Lithosiidse repose during the 

 day on trunks of trees or amongst their branches, and fly in the 

 twilight and darkness. 



Their larvae are unquestionably unlike those of the Tineidse, but 

 strongly resemble those of the Arctiidae and of many groups of 

 Noctuidae ; being cylindric, with each extremity slightly attenuated, 

 frequently clothed with elongate hairs, placed in tufts, and having 

 sixteen feet, placed as in the above families; they are solitary and 

 exposed, and do not live gregariously in a web, or subcutaneously, 

 like those of the Tineidae. 



Lsliall divide the indigenous species into the following genera, 

 thus briefly characterized : 



