24 Psyche [April-June 



to three distinct families) will be treated as comprising a single 

 superfamily, the Micropterygoidea, which constitutes the lepi- 

 dopteroiis suborder Prolepidoptera. 



Packard, 1895 (Monogr. Bombycine Moths, Part 1, Noto- 

 dontidse) makes Eriocephala calthella the "type" of a distinct 

 suborder of Lepidoptera which he calls Lepidoptera laciniata, or 

 Protolepidoptera, while he places Micropteryx in another suborder 

 which he calls the Paleolepidoptera. Chapman, 1916 (Trans. 

 Ent. Soc. London, 1916-1917, p. 310) raises Micropteryx to ordinal 

 rank, proposing for it the name Zeugloptera, thus differing from 

 practically all of his predecessors, who agree in regarding the 

 micropterygoids as lepidopterous. 



On page 307 of Part II of his treatise on Insects (Cambridge 

 Nat. Hist.), Sharp, 1909, in discussing the fact that Brauer's 

 distinction between the Lepidoptera and Trichoptera on the basis 

 of the presence of mandibles in the pupae of Trichoptera no longer 

 holds good, makes the statement that "unless it should be decided 

 to transfer Micropteryx to Trichoptera, and then define Lepidoptera 

 and Trichoptera as distinguished by the condition of the pupa, 

 it would appear to be very difficult to retain the two groups as 

 distinct." On page xvii of the Proceedings of the Ent. Soc. of 

 London, Sharp, 1896 had likewise suggested that the microptery- 

 goids "should be treated as a group of Trichoptera whose larvae 

 are not aquatic in habits." Comstock, 1918, in his book on the 

 "Wings of Insects," has followed these suggestions, treating the 

 Micropterygina as a suborder of the Trichoptera, and referring to 

 them as terrestrial Trichoptera. In reviewing Comstock's book, 

 Tillyard, 1919 (Ent. News for May, 1919, p. 149) criticizes him 

 for removing the micropterygoids from the Lepidoptera to the 

 Trichoptera from the study of the wing-veins alone, and states 

 that "even from the point of view of the wing- venation it is scarcely 

 defensible, for a careful study of the freshly turned pupse of any 

 of the older families of Lepidoptera will show that their wing- 

 tracheation agrees closely with that of Micropteryx, particularly 

 in the different courses of Cu and I A in fore and hind wings. 

 Moreover the pupal wing of Micropteryx has a complete tracheation ; 

 the imaginal wings have broad well developed scales of a higher 

 type than any found in the Trichoptera; the fore wing does not 

 possess a separate M*; and the hind wing has a definite frenulum. 



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