genera Acrolophus and Anaphora. 139 



probably be found. Some apology appears to be needed 

 for the creation of an unwonted number of new generic 

 names, but if the future study of the group is to be 

 facilitated it is not well to ignore structural differences 

 of palpi, antennae, and neuration, such as are usually 

 considered to possess generic value. The whole group 

 has been very little studied, although largely represented 

 on the other side of the Atlantic, and the time may 

 probably come when some lover of the Micro-Lepidoptera, 

 more fortunate or more industrious than myself, may 

 be not ungrateful for this attempt at orderly subdivision, 

 if it should enable him to distinguish and classify a 

 much larger accumulation of specimens and species 

 than I have ever had the pleasure to examine. 



The generic characters have been taken chiefly from 

 the form of the labial palpi and antennae, and from the 

 double or single apical vein of the fore wings. The 

 sexual appendages on the ultimate segments of the 

 bodies of the males have been found reliable in sepa- 

 rating the species, although certainly not uniform 

 throughout the genera. These appendages, both as to 

 the form of the uncus, — sometimes single, sometimes 

 double, sometimes arched, and sometimes angulated, — 

 and as to the form of the lateral claspers presenting 

 various modifications, seem to afford a not unnatural 

 basis for specific distinction, inasmuch as they must 

 more or less affect the process of mating and the trans- 

 mission of hereditary peculiarities. 



Full descriptions of these appendages are to be found 

 in a paper by Dr. Buchanan White in the ' Annales de 

 la Societe Francaise ' for 1878, p. 467, et seq., entitled, 

 " Observations sur l'armure genitale de plusieurs especes 

 francaises de Zygasnidae." In that paper the term 

 " tegumen " is used to indicate the organ here referred 

 to under the name " uncus" ; whilst what I have called 

 " lateral claspers " are entitled " harpagones." This 

 terminology is discussed in a valuable paper in the 

 ' Transactions ' of the Linnean Society, 2nd ser., 1883, 

 vol. ii., pt. 6, p. 270, by Mr. P. H. Gosse, who uses the 

 terms "uncus" and '"harpes," both of which I should 

 perhaps have done better to have adopted. 



