Groups of the Lepidoptera. 3939 
country in which cereals did not grow; or to express in 
dry measure the standard height for our recruits ! 
One point on the subject we have just left, it may, 
perhaps, be desirable very shortly to notice, as it might 
be considered I had overlooked it. It may be urged 
that the names Platypterygide and Notodontide terminat- 
ing in -ide, are the names of families and not groups, 
and that therefore when a group was to be expressed, it 
was necessary a name with a different termination should 
be used. The reasoning put forward must be either that— 
(1.) The name of a group has a fixed termination 
other than -ide ; or, that— 
(2.) The termination -ide is exclusively used to indi- 
cate some other distinction. 
And neither of these contentions is true. Mr. Stainton, 
for instance, in the Manual, uses a uniform termination 
for the names of the groups, viz., -ina; “‘ Sphingina,” 
“ Bombycina,” and the rest; but there is no sort of uni- 
formity among the authors. Linnzeus uses the nominative 
singular, ‘‘ Phaleena;” and the same for the genera, our 
groups; “ Attacus,” “ Noctua,” “Tortriz.” Latreille’s 
three groups end in “-a,” the neuter plural; but his 
primary sections have any termination at hap-hazard, 
thus: “ Aposura,” “ Tortrices,” ‘‘ Deltoides,” ‘ Tineites.” 
The list now in vogue, following the new arrangement 
uses, as did Hiibner in his ‘ Verzeichniss,” the simple 
form “ Noctue,” “ Pyralides,” ‘‘ Crambi,’—a practice 
actually objectionable, because those plurals also indicate 
(in modern usage) the species of the genera Noctua, 
Pyralis, Crambus. There is certainly no sanction for a 
contention that the names of groups must be of uniform 
termination. 
Neither is it true that the termination -ide is exclu- 
sively used to indicate the name of any other division. 
Families in the modern books usually have that termina- 
tion e.g. again, those of Stainton in his Manual. But 
Guenée uses the same termination for his two leading 
sections of the Noctuélites, Z'rifide and Quadrifide ; and 
without looking further afield, Dr. Horsfield, as well as 
Mr. Stephens (see the Introduction to his ‘‘ Systematic 
Catalogue”), have used the termination -ide to indicate 
the very thing we'are upon, the name of a group. 
AA2 
