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XIX. — A Ht vision of th: Old TTorld Lymantnidie in the 

 Xatirynal Collection. Bv CoLOXEL Charles 

 SwiXHOE. M.A., F.L.S., etc. 



The order in which the genera and species of this Family 

 are placed in this paper is the same as that in which they 

 now stand in the Xational Collection. 



In working out the material, I have gone through the 

 whole of the accessible literature: I may have increased 

 the svnonomy somewhat by describing species that have 

 been described before, but their careful descriptions will iu 

 any case be useful 



The difficulties to be overcome in examining literature 

 published in German, Dutch, Swedish, and French is much 

 increased by the extraordinary system now prevailing in 

 the formation of indices to the various scientific senals. 

 With the exception of the " Tring Journal/' the " Journal 

 of the Bombay Xatural History Society '" ( and perhaps one 

 or two others), all the scientific periodicals have generic 

 indices ; this may be sufficient for mammalia, etc., where 

 the genera are so few you can almost count them on your 

 fingers ; but for entomological workers such indices are 

 merely an aggravation, and are absolutely useless with so 

 large a number of genera. In working out small insects 

 mistakes in the reference of species to genera are very 

 liable to be made, and it is next to impossible to decide 

 with any accuracy the genus in which an author has put 

 the species one is looking for. The result of this is that 

 in working out references it becomes necessary to plod 

 through the papers of each writer, species by species. 



I have found it necessary to sink a number of so-c-alled 

 genera, especiallv under the well-known genus Dasych. ira ; 

 and though I have twice examined every type specimen of 

 every one of these genera, I can detect no distinctive points 

 in any of them sufficient to differentiate it. 



Both sexes of typical Dasychira have peculiar dorsal 

 tufts of hairs on the abdomen, and a second characteristic 

 is the enlarged and truncate formation of the anal segment 

 of the abdomen, especially noticeable in the temale. 



TRAXS. EXT. SO€. LOXD. 1903. — PART IIL (OCT.) 



