516 PROF. .1. O. WESTW'OOD OX THE URANIID.E. 



'I'lio fact that Cindart, in the ' Encyclopedie im'thodique,' described a species of Com- 

 nidia as an Ayarixfa, that Latreille placed the two genera in jiixtaposition, and that 

 M. Boisduval had united the three genera named by him Urania (Chri/siridia), Ci/rlimou 

 {Uranidia), and Ni/cfalenwn {Alcidia and Lyssidia) as three of the tribes of his family 

 Agaristidees in his ' Monographic dcs Agaristidees,' render it necessary to inquire 

 how far this relationship is real. It is true that the shape of the antenna; in Uranidia 

 agrees with that of Agarista, and that the armature of the four posterior tibia; is 

 similar ; but the arrangement of the wing-veins in the two groups is wholly unlike, as 

 may be seen by comparing my figures accompanying the present memoir witli that of 

 Agarista lindigii given by me in the ' Transactions of the Linnean Society,' Ser. 2, Zool. 

 vol. i. pi. xxix. fig. 24, which exhibits the small lozenge-shaped cell (occurring also in 

 (Hhria augias, tab. cit. fig. 18, Ilespagarisfa interjecta, ibid. fig. 22), of which there is 

 no trace in Uranidia, where the lower discoidal vein is far removed at its base from the 

 terminal portion of the median system of veins. 



A more careful examination than has hitherto been published of the anangcmcnt of 

 the veins of the wings in the chief types of the Bombycidfe discloses the fact, that 

 there is more variation amongst them in this respect than is to be met with in other 

 great groups, such as the Sphingidte, Noctuida;, and Geometridse, and hence that a 

 discrepancy between the veining of the wings of the Uraniidie and the Bombycida; is 

 not a sufficient argument for their rejection from the latter. In the accompanying 

 Plate LXXXVI. I have given figures of a few of the leading types of Bombycidte, 

 commencing with those in which some of the branches of the veins are obsolete, and 

 terminating with some which have the full complement of veins and branches. It is 

 remarkable that the gigantic types of the Bombycidae {Attacus atlas and its allies), not- 

 withstanding the comparatively large size of the wings, should have several branches 

 wanting ; and it is not easy to trace tlie precise analogies of some of those which remain. 

 In this species the strong costal vein of the fore wings {a) extends about three fourths 

 of the length of the entire costa ; the subcostal vein has apparently only three instead of 

 five branches ; the jBrst branch (J i) arises at a short distance before the extremity of the 

 discoidal cell, and reaches the costa halfway between the extremity of the costal vein 

 and the tip of the wing ; the second branch {b 2) of the subcostal arises at a moderate 

 distance beyond the cell and reaches the tip of the wing, whilst the main branch {b s) 

 extends to the middle of the rounded hook or apex of the wing. From the underside 

 of the subcostal vein, just beyond the branching of the first branch, extends a vein 

 obliquely, forming a portion of the anterior margin of the glassy disk, and branching 

 into two branches at the middle of this vitreous spot. Are these two branches the 

 fourth and fiftli branches of the subcostal vein ■? or are they the two discoidal branches 

 of Mr. E. Doubleday, one of which I have considered as supplemental to the subcostal 

 series, and the other to the median series? In their position they exactly correspond 

 to the arrangement of the veins in Morpho, as represented by Mr. Doubleday (Gen. I). 



