12 Mr. R. M‘Lachlan’s Monograph of the 
This family may be readily distinguished by the four-jointed 
maxillary palpi of the males, and by the number of the tibial spurs 
being always 2-4-4. It comprises some of the largest and most 
handsome insects in the Order, but is poorly represented in Great 
Britain. The species, at any rate those that we possess, are 
heavy-flying nocturnal insects. ‘The handsome continental Holus- 
tomis phalenoides* is migratory, sometimes appearing in large 
numbers, and then disappearing for years. No insect belonging 
to this family, or to the Limnephilide, has yet been found south 
of the equator, but I think it not impossible, that, when more is 
known of the insect fauna of the southern parts of South America, 
there may be found some southern exponents of these families. 
The British genera are three in number, and may be tabulated 
thus :— 
A. Wings distinctly clothed with short hairs ; tibize 
strongly spinose-f-0%) 6. 20 Seie-es ae ee hrysance: 
B. Wings almost devoid of hairy clothing; tibiz 
scarcely spinose. 
a. Apex of anterior wings elliptical . . . . Neuronia. 
b. Apex of anterior wings obliquely truncate . Agrypnia. 
Genus Purycanea, Linné. 
Antenne stout, basal joint short, bulbous. Head broad. Eyes 
very prominent. Maxillary palpi of the male moderately hairy, 
with very short basal joint, the rest of nearly equal length, concave 
on the under surface, terminal joint narrower than the others; of 
the female, with short basal joint, second and third of equal length, 
broad, fourth and fifth of equal length, narrow. Labial palpi with 
the three joints of nearly equal length, terminal joint ovate. Pro- 
thorax very hairy. Mesothorax broader than the head. Anterior 
wings broad, more elongate in the female, apex rounded, hairy 
covering short but rather dense, neuration strongly marked, radius 
strongly bent before its termination, discoidal cell long and narrow, 
first apical cell reaching almost half along the discoidal, truncated at 
the base, fifth apical cell very acute at the base; in the female the 
posterior branch of the ramus thyrifer (or seventh apical sector) is 
furcate, whereas in the male it is simple (in P. minor it is simple in 
both sexes). Posterior wings shorter and broader than the anterior, 
* This insect has been included in the British list (by Turton), but there 
is no good evidence that it has really been found in these islands; neverthe- 
less the habit of the species renders its occasional occurrence here not im- 
probable. It is a North-European species, but not exclusively so, Scopoli 
(P. speciosa) having included it in his “ Entomologia Carniolica.”’ 
