56 INTRODUCTION. 



it may be something more in the histoiy of the 

 lepidopterous tribes. 



These insects are best distinguished by the shape 

 of the antennae, which are setaceous or diminishing 

 in thickness from the base to the apex. They are 

 generally long and flexible, and composed of oblong, 

 subquadrate, or transverse joints. In many cases 

 they are toothed or serrated, and often emit a series 

 of parallel branchlets on one or both sides, some- 

 what resembling the teeth of a comb, whence they 

 are said to be pectinated or bipectinated. These 

 branchlets are sometimes themselves furnished with 

 a secondary row, and have two or three divergent 

 spines at the tip, all of them placed with much 

 regularity, and presenting a very beautiful appear 

 ance under a magnifying lens. They are generally 

 more or less clothed with scales, which sometimes 

 (as in Hypena proloscidalis ) are very long and not 

 unlike feathers. Whenever they deviate from a 

 simply articulated structure, the antennae are more 

 developed in the male than in the female ; if serrated 

 in the former, for example, they are often simple in 

 the latter ; and if those of the male are pectinated, 

 his partner usually has them merely serrated, or at 

 most imperfectly pectinated. In a group of small 

 silver-spotted moths ( Aryyromiges ) , which suspend 

 their slender cocoon to the under side of a leaf by 

 means of four threads at each end, exactly after the 

 manner of a hammock, the antennae when in repose 

 are bent backwards and lodged beneath the wings. 

 The superficial scales are greatly more varied in 



