512 PROF. J. 0. WESTWOOD ON THE URANIID.E. 



Rejecting, then, the Rhopalocera (including the Hesperiidae), the typical Sphingidae, 

 CastniidjE, and Hepialidae, together with the whole of the Microlepidoptera, we have 

 to inquire which of the remaining Macrolepidopterous groups show the greatest amount 

 of affinity to the Uraniida;. 



If we regard the Noctuida?, we find a robust body with comparatively small wings 

 formed for powerful fliglit, and generally marked with a peculiar reniform and a cir- 

 cular spot or patch in the middle of the fore wings ; the antenna? are also almost 

 invariably slender and setaceous, becoming gradually attenuated to the tip. In this 

 family, however, is found a group [Erebus'^) with the palpi elongated, terminated by a 

 slender joint, which probably induced Dalman to place them, under the name of 

 Thysania, Avith the Uraniidae. 



Plate LXXXVI. fig. 4 represents the head oi Erchus [I'atula) macrops, Linn., Guen. 

 (Bubo. Fabr., Donovan, Ins. (llhina, pi. 44. f. 1). Tlie venation of the wings, however 

 (Plate LXXXVI. tig. 1 fore wing, and fig. 2 hind wing of the male, and fig. 3 hind 

 wing of the female), of the same Indian species of Erebm denuded of scales, is entirely 

 different from that of any of the Uraniidae, the fore wings having the small subcostal 

 cell {sc. c) and the lower discoidal vein (cS') arising close to the base of the third 

 branch [c 3) of the median vein from a very short transverse discocellular vein. 



Mr. MacLeay, in his memoir on Urania, noticed the resemblance between the more 

 or less spherical eggs of Urania and Catocala. The last-named genus, however, is 

 an aberrant one in the family Noctuidae ; and the oology of the Lepidoptera has not 

 been sufficiently studied to allow much weight to be given to the character of the eggs 

 of these insects. At all events, as Mr. MacLeay remarked, the form of the eggs of 

 Urania is a very common one in Lepidopterous insects. Hence we may reject the 

 Noctuidae from amongst the near relations of the Uraniidae. 



Of the remaining families, typified by the Linnean genera Bombyx and Geouictra^ 

 M. Guenee is decidedly in favour of the latter : — " II me semble," says he (Hist. Nat. 

 Ins. Lep. ix. p. 4), " qu'aucune ne pent hitter a cet egard avec les Geometres. Nous 

 retrouvons d'abord dans la premiere faraille de ces dernieres que personne ne sera 

 tente de disputer aux Phalenes une nervulation [venation] exactement semblable. Les 

 antennes quoique legerement renflees pres du sommet chez plusieurs Uranides, sont fili- 

 formes ou plutot setacees, et tout le raonde sait que ce n'est que chez les Geometra que 

 cette forme est vraiment normale. L' absence des stemmates et des taches reniformes 

 et orbiculaires suffit pour les eloigner des Noctuelles et les rapprocher des Geometra oil 

 ces caracteres manquent egalement. Les queues des ailes inferieures, avec les taches 

 ocellees qui les accompagnent ne se retrouvent que chez les Geometres de la premiere 

 famille ou chez les Saturnides qui les precederont dans la distribution que j'ai adoptee. 

 L'aspect general des deux dernieres families, leurs ailes minces, etendues, leur vol diurne 



' JI. lioisduval (in Nouv. Ann. du Mils. ii. p. 2G0j introduced the gonus Urania bet\V(.'eu Erebus and the 

 Gcometrida?. 



