i82 LEPIDOPTERA. 



described in Stainton's Manual, becomes divided into two parts, 

 since G. Jiamcornis and C. ridens have eyes densely hairy, the 

 rest naked. (But oddly enough, those writers who have separ- 

 ated these two species into a separate genus — Asphalia — have 

 placed with them C. diluta, the eyes of which are perfectly 

 naked.) By this peculiarity of structure Stainton's genera 

 Mamestra, TccniocaTnpa, Apleda, and Hadena are similarly 

 bisected. A division consisting only of hairy-eyed species 

 would embrace the genera Aspludia, Lencania, part of Mam- 

 estra, part of Twniocampay Dianthecia, Hccatcra, Aplcda 

 (part), Hadena (part) and Anarta, with a few scattered single 

 species, leaving the rest of the Noduina in the other divi- 

 sion, and would be about as intelligible as a division of the 

 Butterflies which would place the genera Vanessa, Pararge, 

 Thecla and Polyommatus on one side, with all the rest on 

 the other ! Nevertheless, it seems undesirable to leave 

 species separated by so striking a structural peculiarity as 

 this in the same genus. In view of these considerations, I 

 find myself unable to follow the arrangement of Mr. Stainton, 

 convenient and attractive as it otherwise appears. 



Other structural characters which may be used for classi- 

 fication are the presence, position, or absence of eyelashes or 

 rows of bristles, usually black, in front or at the back of the 

 eyes ; large tufts of elongated scales in curved crests on the 

 top or at the back of the thorax ; and smaller tufts or crests, 

 various in form and in number, on the dorsal ridge of the 

 abdominal segments. The fine bristles or hairs, denominated 

 for convenience eyelashes, are placed, in a few species, in a 

 row in front of the large convex eye, and in another row at 

 its back, either stifiiy erect or curiously curved over the eye 

 as though to afford it additional protection, and closely re- 

 semble similar appendages in the Hcpialida: and some of the 

 Sphingidce. In a larger number of species they appear only 

 at the back of the eye, and in a still larger number, where 

 they seem to be absent, they may be found in a prostrate 

 position among the surrounding long head-scales ; but in 



