the Lepidopterous Family Cossidae. 



181 



from those of the other families dealt with in this paper. The 

 cell is small, without any media, 7 arises from its costal 

 edge rather near the base and is connected with 8 by a short 

 oblique vein a as in Lasiocampa, or by an anastomosis as in 

 Bhima. I regard the former as more primitive. The offshoots 

 from 8 are not veins, but chitinous thickenings developed to 

 strengthen the precostal expansion of the hind-wing, which 

 compensates for the absence of a frenulum in this familv. 

 In an undescribed genus from West Australia, for which" I 

 proj30se the name Neurochyta* the fore-wing differs from 

 Lasiocampa only in the stalking of 7 and 8, and the absence 

 of the media. The hind-wings are very exceptional in 

 the family in the origin of 7 

 from very near the end of 

 tlic cell, as is usual in other 

 families, and the cell is of the 

 normal lepidopterous form. I 

 regard this as a fortunate 

 discovery in preventing me 

 from attaching too much im- 

 portance to the peculiarly 

 formed hind-wing cell usual in 

 the Lasiocampidae, and as in- 

 dicating, by the preservation 

 of a more primitive form, how 

 it may have developed. Yet 

 Neurochyta has a lasiocampid 

 hind-wing, for 8 anastomoses 

 strongly with the cell near the 

 base, and though the pre-costal cell so formed is very 

 small, it gives rise to two strong branching spurs or 

 pseudoneuria. 



There seems, therefore, no real difficulty in deriving the 

 Lasiocampidae from the cossid stem, although it is an 

 isolated and early development from it. 



* Neurochyta, gen. nov. Palpi moderately long, porrect, reach- 

 ing beyond frontal tuft, densely hairy. Fore-wings with 2 from ^, 

 3 from f, 4 and 5 approximated from angle, (> from upper angle 

 connate with 7, 8 which arc short-stalked, or 0, 7, 8 stalked, 9, 10 

 stalked, li from §, free, but running close under 12. Hind-wings 

 with 2 from middle of cell, .'! from shortly before angle, 4, 5 stalked 

 from angle, 6 from upper angle, 7 from shortly before angle, 8 

 anastomosing with cell from near base to %, precostal cell minute, 

 two jarecostal pseudoneuria arising together near base and diverging. 

 Type A', edna, Swinh. 



Fig. 47. — Neurochyta edna, Swinh. 



