220 [October. I88I1 



nearest European ally is A. siceliota, Zell." The three Aciptili— 



A. pallidum, A. siceliota, and A. haptodactylus, have very much ini 

 common with each other, so that they at least form a very distinct I 

 section of Aciptilus, and certainly there is much resemblance to this 

 species in the group, but none of them have the tuft of projecting 

 scales. Although the inferior lobe of the fore-wing in Oxyptilus is 

 truncate, with a concave margin, yet this is not equally shown in all 

 species, it reaches its greatest development in O. didactylus and Oj 

 ericetorum, also in the O. ningoris of the present work, but it is much! 

 less marked in O. Kollari, and still less so in the 0. rutilans of St. 

 Helena ; none of them have, however, the simple pointed feather of 

 an Aciptilus, such as is found in A. californicus. It is an undoubted 

 link between Oxyptilus and Aciptilus, and very possibly may hereafter 

 modify the classification of the plume moths. 



The last of the Pterophoridce recorded is TricJi opt Hits pygmceus, 

 "Wlsm., a species near to the last, yet so aberrant, that a new genus 

 had to be formed for its reception ; saving in the tuft of scales on the 

 third feather of the hind-wing, its wings are the wings of an Aciptilus ; 

 but its palpi are longer, the third joint not drooping and not more 

 slender than the second, "the posterior tibiae are thickened at the base 

 of the spurs, and ornamented above them with erect brush-like tufts 

 of scales." It was impossible for this to be called an Aciptilus, and 

 so the necessity for the new genus was undoubted ; it is the least of 

 all the plumes yet known, and expands only ten millimetres ; its an- 

 terior wings are " pale fawn-colour, dusted with fuscous-brown scales 

 along the costa." These last two are without doubt the most interest- 

 ing of the plumes discovered. 



Prof. Zeller records a most remarkable genus of plumeless 

 Pterophoridce from Texas ; it does, indeed, as its name states, " laugh 

 at laws." It seems the very Ar dice opt eryx of the plumes, with entire 

 wings, no naked unfeathered space as in Agdistes to mark where the 

 fissure should be, and with distinct ocelli ; *the hind femora being 

 shorter than the tibiae, seem almost the only feature which makes it a 

 plume and not a Pyralis ; two species are described, Scoptonoma In- 

 tegra and S. interrupt a. 



In this paper, as far as possible, species have been dealt with 

 rather than genera, and all reference to classification has been strictly 

 avoided ; this subject has not, however, been out of my thoughts, and 

 it is my hope to return to it at no very distant date. 



* "Dass die Gattung nicbt etwa zu den Pjn-aliden gebort, beweisen die Hinterscbienen, 

 welcbe liber doppelt so lang, wie die Scbenkel sind." 



