50 INSECTA TRANSVAALIENSIA. 



as a rule, hatched out well, and by their general appearance bore out the statement of his 

 correspondent. The species were Gynanisa maia, Buiutia alcinoe, Anrjelica tijirlica, Melanocera 

 menippe, Nmkmrelia iculilhergi, and Cirina forda* 



American entomologists are the most advanced students in the taxonomy of these 

 Moths. According to Mr. John B. Smith, | the family Saturniidse, as limited by him, is 

 sharply separated from all the other Lepidoptera by the structure of the antennae. These 

 organs are always pectinated in the males, and usually also in the females. The branches 

 or pectinations are arranged on each side of the middle of the joints, and these are, in the 

 males always and the females usually, two on each side, or four branches to each antennal 

 joint — a character found in only one other family, the Ceratocampidae. The latter family is 

 sharply separated from the present by having the pectinations extending only half the length 

 of the antennte, while here they extend to the tip. In life-habits they are also very distinct, 

 for while the Saturniid larvte are all spinners and make more or less perfect cocoons, the 

 Ceratocampid larvae all go under ground to pupate. He proposed the following divisional 

 characters : — 



Pectinations of anteniKe extending to the tip Saturniidje. 



Disced cell of hotlt. icings open ........ Subfam. Attacin^. 



Discal cell of both ivings closed ........ Subfam. SATURNiiNiE. 



Pectinations of antennce extending to the middle only, simple or serrate beyond Ceratocampid^. 



Dr. A. S. Packard, who has given much study to the problem, considers that " the larval 

 characters of this interesting group, especially those features which are congenital, tend to 

 show that the family has originated from some spiny group, and most probably, when we take 

 into account the transformations of Aglia tau,l from the Ceratocampidae, although none of the 

 latter spin a cocoon. During the evolution of the group they underwent a change in shape, 

 from a rather long and slender form to a thick heavy body, with a thin integument, the result 

 perhaps of an unusually stationary mode of life. The imagines also imderwent a process of 

 degeneration, as seen in the atrophy, total or partial, of the maxillae, and in the loss of veins 

 in their very large but weak wings ; though the loss of strength of flight is somewhat 

 compensated for by the remarkable development of the olfactory organs, or antennae. . . . 

 It seems probable that the type was a Miocene Tertiary one, which has lingered on in Eastern 

 America (North and South), and in Eastern Asia, as well as in Africa, while it has become 

 nearly extinct on the Pacific shores of North and South America, and in Europe." § Packard 

 subsequently separated — so far as he possessed information — the genera of the spinning and 

 subterraneous pupating Moths. || He also proposed the name Sphingicampid^ for the 

 last-mentioned Moths, " whose larv^ are so sphinx-like in general shape, in the form of the 

 anal legs, head, and other features, besides the pupa and subterranean habits. 



Mr. A. R. Grote, under the title of Die Saturniiden*!i entered very fully into a proposed 



'■' Proc. Zool. Soc. Loncl. 1886, pp. 296-7 ; cf. also WaiUy, ' Entomologist,' xsix. p. 354 (1896). 

 t " A Revision of the Lepid. Fam. Saturniid*," Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. 1886, p. 414. 



I A Palfearctic species. 



§ "Studies on the Transformations of Moths of the Family Saturniid®" (Proc. Am. Ac. Arts and Science (n. s.), sx. 

 p. 55, 1893). 



II Cf. " On the Larval Forms of several Exotic Ceratocampid Moths " (' Psyche,' vol. ix. p. 279 (1901) ) ; and " On the 

 Limits of the Family Saturniidse," &o., loc. cit. p. 321 (1902). 



H ' Mittheiluugen aus dem Roemer Museum zu Hildesheim,' No. 6 (1896). 



