xxiv Lloyd's natural history. 



the Goat Moth, while fresh lines of inquiry and investigation, 

 of which the older wTiters never dreamed, are opening up 

 before us every day. And yet it is easy to go too fast 

 and too far. It is futile to dogmatise on the lines of descent 

 of Lepidoptera when so few fossil forms have yet been 

 discovered to lend us any assistance in checking our 

 conclusions ; and what is called " mimicry " is apparently, in 

 many cases, nothing more than the influence of similar sur- 

 roundings, acting in a similar manner upon different insects 

 inhabiting the same district. 



Still, it may be well to sketch out very briefly the efforts 

 made from time to time by Lepidopterists to arrive at a natural 

 classification of the Moths, and this I will now attempt to do. 



In 1758 Linnaeus arranged the Moths as follows, in the 

 loth edition of his " Systema Naturae": — 



SPHINX. Ante7i7icE medio crassiores s. utrinque extremitate 

 attenuatae, subprismaticae. 

 Alee deflexae (volatu graviore vespertino s. matutino). 



* Legitime : Alis angulatis. 



* "^ Legitime : Alis integris, ano simplici. 



* "^ * Legitime : Alis integris, ano barbato. 



* * * * Adscitae : habitu et Larva diversae. 



PHAL^NA. Afifennce setaceae a basi ad apicem sensim 

 attenuatae. 

 AIcB (sedentis) saepius depressae (volatu nocturno). 



Phalcenae dividendae, quo facilius inquirantur. 



Primariac Alis incumhe7iti depressis, 



I. IjOmbyces. Afitetmis Pectifiatis. 



Elingucs absque lingua via^iifeste spirali. 



laeves, dor so nee crista tiv. 



