208 [Septcraher, 



SUPPLEMENT TO "A SYNOPSIS OP BRITISH PSYCRODID.JE" 

 BY THE KEV. A. E. EATON, M.A., F.E.S. 



The present article concerns matters omitted from the " Synopsis 

 of British Psi/chodidae,''' published in the volumes of this Magazine 

 for the years 1893 and 1894i. Their omission was largely due to 

 illness retarding the progress of investigation, and partly to their not 

 being required for differentiation of the species characterized. Among 

 the additional particulars are items likely to be of value in larger 

 schemes of classification ; but their relative importance cannot be 

 gauged exactly from so limited a number of species as the author has 

 been able to study. On this account, and out of consideration of the 

 supplementary nature of these notes, it seems desirable to refrain 

 from establishing new genera in place of subdivisions of the old 

 genus Pericoma at this juncture, although it needs no great ability 

 to discern elements of distinct generical rank among the rallying 

 points mapped out for the assemblage of species. To give a fuller 

 grasp of the subject, mention is made of Algerian PsycTiodidce (to be 

 described in a future communication) that do not quite conform to 

 British standards ; these are denoted by numerals, to facilitate ulterior 

 reference. And with the same object in view, a few particulars that 

 have already been touched upon in the Synopsis are briefly re-stated 

 so far as may be absolutely necessary for the elucidation of leading 

 differences ; because the analytical tabulations previously set forth 

 were not entirely founded upon lines of formal classification. 



Note to Introduction ; an/e, 2nd series, vol. iv, p. 6, first paragraph. 

 — The wii\gs of Psychodidce are distinctly hairy on the nervures and 

 margins. Scales in both sexes are often substituted for hairs at the 

 wang-roots on their under-side ; and in the males of a few species this 

 substitution is much more extended along certain of the nervures. 

 The wing-membrane also is beset with hairs ; but these are of extreme 

 microscopical minuteness, and when only moderately magnified pro- 

 duce an appearance of punctulation or fine stippling. The more 

 obvious hair is remarkable for diversity in its arrangement. In some 

 members of the Family it conforms very generally to the ridge and 

 furrow contour of the surfaces — the hairs spreading pinnately and 

 obliquely from the nervures, rather close to the membrane, and 

 intercrossing at their tips in opposed ranks when the membrane is 

 slack. But the hair on the upper-side of certain nervures in most of 

 the Psychodidce is bristling or ruflBed up to some distance from the 

 wing-roots. The nervures on which the hair is bristling ar§ not 



