74 Psyche [June 



tations to certain phases of that environment. Especially is this 

 true of the ways in which they obtain the two prime necessities of 

 life — food and shelter. The genus Depressaria, of the Lepidop- 

 terous family Q^cophoridae, illustrates such variation of habits. 

 As regards this rather large genus, many facts of a biologic nature 

 remain still to be worked out. However, from the data available, 

 some interesting ecological relations have been noted. 



In treating this genus, the catalogues of Staudinger and Rebel 

 for European forms, and of Dyar for North American forms, have 

 been followed, with additions of such as have been described since 

 these publications, and of such exotic forms as are given in a few 

 other sources. From the British Museum Catalogue, seven species 

 are listed for which no references could be found. These are D. 

 acerbella, Africa, a doubtful member of the genus; leiciyiella, mele- 

 sella, sobriella, convidella and absumptella, AustraMa; and moderatella, 

 Tasmania. If these species have been transferred from Depres- 

 saria, no account of such transfer could be found. From Cotes 

 and Swinhoe's Moths of India, seven species are listed, omitting 

 D. gossypiella, which is no longer placed in this genus. One species 

 is also listed from the Biologia Centrali-Americana. 



The genus as here treated consists of two hundred and forty- 

 nine species, distributed throughout most parts of the world, yet 

 occurring mainly in Central Europe. The table of distribution is as 

 follows : 



North America 48 Russia and the North Coun- 



Central America 1 tries 27 



South America 3 ^^P^" ^ 



British Isles 19 , ,. 



India 9 



Central Europe 102 j^^^^ ^f ^^j^ 30 



Southern Europe 59 Africa 11 



Spain and Portugal 24 Australia 7 



If the grouping be given for continents, Europe has by far the 

 greatest number, and these are in the main located in central 

 Europe. Stainton says: "Though most of the European species 

 seem to be widely distributed, a few are restricted to the south, 

 and some are peculiar to the north. " It is evident that this state- 

 ment still holds good, though the number of recognized species is 

 now nearly three times that known by Stainton. 



