132 Mr. J. W. Dunning on 



connect the Tineina and Pterophorina, I do not know ; it 

 may be fancy on my part, but I do fancy I detect an 

 aflSnity between Acentropus and Agdistis. The approxi- 

 mation to the Hyponomeuttdce does not appear to me so 

 manifest ; I suppose the recurved or drooping palpi are 

 the principal thing relied on ; but in Knagg's ' Cabinet 

 List' the Hyponomeutidce are the next family to the 

 Micropterygidce. Again, there is plausibility in the sug- 

 gestion of relationship between the phryganoid Acentropus 

 and Chimabacche phryganella ; next to the Epigraphiidce 

 or Chimabacchidce, the Psychidce are also placed by those 

 who regard that family as Tineina, and it scarcely needs 

 to be added that the Psychidce are very like Phryganeina 

 in some respects, and have, indeed, been classified with 

 Neuroptera; moreover, the existence of wingless or but 

 partially - winged females in Acentropus, is a feature 

 which that genus possesses in common both with Chima- 

 bacche and Psyche. So far as I am aware. Brown is the 

 only author who has referred the genus to the Bombycina ; 

 it is to this group that the Psychidce are relegated by 

 those who expel them from the Tineina, and Brown would 

 place them in the same section of the Bombycina ; but 

 the families with which he suggests that Acentropus has 

 the nearest affinity are the Hepialidce and Zenzeridce, 

 agreeing with the former '' in the general shape of its 

 larvae, in the absence of spines on the legs of the imago 

 [see, however, p. 130], and in the substitution for them 

 of hair, in the want of a labrum, and in the almost total 

 absence of maxillae;" and with the Zenzeridce *'in the 

 shape of larva, small development of maxillae, and general 

 form of the palpi." On the other hand, the general 

 appearance of the imago is strongly suggestive of a 

 Crambus, but the retrorse palpi and the neuration of the 

 wings do not agree with those of the Crambidce ; whilst 

 the aquatic habit of the insect, the mode of life, and the 

 metamorphoses, are so plainly indicative of affinity to 

 Hydrocampa, that I willingly go with the current of recent 

 opinion, and recognize the true place of the Acentropodidce 

 to be where Staudinger and Wocke have placed them, 

 that is to say, in the Pyralidina, leading up to the Ghilo- 

 nidce and Cramhidce.^ 



* Knaggs suggests that the Pterophorina should follow next after the 

 Pyralidina (Cab. List Lepid. p. 11). If this be so, it briugs Agdistis into 

 close proximity with Acentrop^is. 



