66 THE entomologist's record. 



and Mr. Tutt, and to be found in British Lepidoptera, vol. i., pp. 114- 

 129, 1899. Of the detailed classification of the Splnnnides one awaits 

 information in a future volume, but its relationships to other super- 

 families are discussed in a way that, to our knowledge, had not been 

 previously done. The Sphint/ides are associated with other families 

 from the following structural peculiarities : 



(1) The possession of a flat egg (i.e., with the long micropylar axis 



horizontal, and with a short vertical axis). 



(2) The maintenance of the larval tubercles iv and v as sub-spiracular 



tubercles . . . . ; a tendency for i to form a many haired dorsal 

 wart, and to form with iii and iv and v on either side a transverse row 

 of warts on each segment ; it tends very strongly (in some families) to 

 become atrophied. 



It is true, as the author points out, that the Sphingids form one 

 of those specialised superfamilies of the Sphingo-Micropterygid stirps 

 that exhibits great modification in the larval tubercles when compared 

 with the allied families in the same stirps, particularly in the direction 

 of atrophy, although the Sphingid larvfe are easily separated from all 

 other larva? by the peculiar movement of v to form a prespiracular 

 tubercle. It is, therefore, with the greatest interest that we shall look 

 for the detailed classification of this and the allied groups which has 

 been promised in the next volume (iii) of Mr. Tutt's work. In vol. i, 

 the Sesiidae and Anthroccridae {Zj/;/acnidae) so long connected with 

 the Sphingids are clearly shown by the very generalised embryological 

 stages to be widely separated, although from their bearing certain 

 ancestral characters in common {e.;/., a fiat egg with horizontal 

 micropylar axis) they are placed amongst the generalised families of 

 the stirps of which the SpiJiimjides and Saturniades are the most 

 specialised. Tutt says {loc. cit., p. 120) : "The observations of Poulton 

 and Weismann on the larvfe of Af/lia and other Saturniids, and the 

 comparison of these with the Sphingid larvtie, leave little room for 

 doubt that these sujDerfamilies are somewhat closely related," 

 Although it is argued that the Saturniids and Sphingids have arisen 

 from a common ancestral stock, yet they are regarded as forming very 

 distinct superfamilies. A great step has been thus made in our 

 knowledge of the evolution of these families, whilst the mode of 

 inductive reasoning by which stirpes are formed, representing lines of 

 descent based largely on embryological characters, thrown as far back 

 in the existence of the insects as possible (i.e., the use of the structural 

 characters of the egg), also represents great advance. By the means 

 here suggested the Spihini/idcs (together with Saturniade.'<) have been 

 determined as the most specialised of the superfamilies forming Tutt's 

 Sphingo-Micropterygid stirps, and we see that although the Saturniids 

 are comparatively close to the Sphingids in oval, larval and pupal 

 characters, the imagines have evolved along quite different lines. This 

 thorough mode of application of embryonic characters strongly 

 convinces one that the Sjdiint/idc.s have now been placed in a more 

 approximately correct position than they have been at any period 

 during the past century or previously. 



Illustrations of Lepidoptera — being Imprints of Impressions. 



By ALFRED SIGH, F.E.S. 

 At Bologna, in 1602, Ulysses Aldrovandus published in his great 

 work a very interesting volume, Be A)ii)nalibus Insectiti, partly devoted 



