4 PKYEKIA. By Dr. K. Jukuax. 



tarsi without tootli. — Egg above a little impressed, the surface very feebly sculptured. — Caterpillar with 

 16 legs, head small, retractible into the prothorax; setiferous warts on all segments; the prolegs bearing a 

 halfnng of hooks. — Chrysalis in a cocoon, abdominal somites all (?) free. According to Dohekty's ob- 

 senation the larvae of a curious long-tailed Oriental species oi Bimantopterua live in the nests of white ants. 

 — Day -flying insects, mostly of Inight colours, metallic gloss being prevalent, but there are also 

 sombre brown and yellowish foniis without gloss. They have a slow flight, and many sham death on being 

 touched. The soft bodj- contains acrid fluids, which protect these tenacious insects against the predations 

 of their insectivorous enemies. They sit mostly lazily on flowers, only in hot sunshine become the cTc'' of 

 manj- species more livel}^ swanning about in a straight flight. In pattern, colour and shape many Zijgaennlae 

 ao-ree closely with other Lepidoptera to wliich they are not nearly related, especially members of the families 

 Geometridae, Synlomidae, and Aictiidae, as well as Pieridae and Danainae. The similarity between the Paiae- 

 arctic Zygaenids and Syntomids, especially in the outline and the relative size of the wings, was in fact the 

 main reason which induced the older authors to regard these insects as being closely allied to one another 

 and therefore to unite them in one family. How-ever, the small Zijgaetw -Wk^ wings are a character acquired 

 independently by these two families, and found only in one portion of the whole family Zygaenidat'. The 

 more original Zygaenids are doubtless the Chalcosi'mae with their broad wings and strongly pectinated an- 

 tennae, though the Chalcosiinae on their part are in other respects more specialized than our true Zygaenae. 

 It is a general fact met with everywhere when studying the phytogeny of animal forms, that a species or 

 a group of forms (genus, family, etc.), more generalized in some characters than a second species or genus 

 (etc.), is much more specialized than the latter in other organs. This fact is very prominent among the 

 Zygaenids. 



The Palaearctic Zygaenidae are divided into three subfamilies, which can easily be distinguished as 

 follows : 



1. Phaudinae. — Tongue reduced, very weak or absent; body rough-hairy. 



2. Chalcosiinae. — Tongue present, rarely absent, in the latter case the abdomen not rough as in the 



Phaudinae; body more or less metallic; foretibia without spur; hindtibia with apical 

 spurs, but without middle spurs. 



3. Zygaeninae. — Tongue present; foretibia with spur. 



A. Subfamily: Phaudinae. 



Tongue reduced. Palpus mostly small, often indicated only, rarely rather large, but in this case rough- 

 hairy like the whole bodj-. Most species are entirely devoid of metallic colours, only the tibiae are sometimes 

 slightly metallic green. Scales of the wings hair-like, rarely truncate. Black, brown, and yellow or red are the 

 colours of this subfamily. — Hardly anything is known about tlie former stages, with the exception of a Javanese 

 species. In the Palaearctic Region there occur 6 species, which belong to 3 genera: 



1. Pryeria. — Submedian veins of forewing connected with one another by a bar, which is occasionallj' inter- 



rupted. 



2. Phauda. — All subcostals of forewing from cell, or 3. and 4. stalked. 



3. Pseudopsyche. — The 3.-5. subcostals of forewing stalked, the 5. proximal of the 3. 



1. Genus: Pryeria Mom-e. 



Body rough-hairy; abdomen of cf with long apical tufts. Palpus just vestigial. Tongue absent. 

 Antenna long-pectinate in c", dentate in ?, distaUy slightly incrassate, flattened below, pectinations non-scaled. 

 Tibiae without spurs. Wings Syntomis-like in outline, transparent, being covered with thin hairs; costal 

 margin of forewing incrassate, costal vein distally connected with edge i)y short veinlets, 1. subcostal re- 

 presented by an incomplete vein which does not extend to the cell, 3. and 4. subcostals stalked, cell very 

 narrow from base to middle, subcostal and median nervures touching each other, submedian veins connected 

 before the middle by a bar, which is occasionally interrupted; costal vein of the small hindwing distally 

 anastomosing with cell, 5 veins from cell, anterior angle of cell much more produced than hind angle. — 

 Former stages not known. The caterpillar feeds on «Masaki'> according to Pryek. Like many other Zy- 

 gaenids sporadical, sometimes found in great numbers on a tree, and not met with again for a long while. 



sinica. P. siniCB ^loore (la). Body black; the mesothoracical tegula and the greather portion of the ab- 



domen dirty orange-yellow. Wings covered with thin black hairs, base pale yellow; forewing broader in ? 

 than in c . — Japan and North China, not rare in Central Japan, found by Pkyek in great numbers 

 in the neighbourhood of Yokohama.*) 



*) I met with tliis species flying in great numbers around a tree in a garden of the Bluff near Yokohama. Whole 

 swarms of cfcT' gathered around the ^, which were silting at the tips of some branches. The cfcfi on the wing, resembled 

 exactly a sawfly of the Tenthredinid genus Lyda. — Seitz. 



