FAMILY PYRALIDCE 



" All multiplicity rushes to be resolved into unity. Anatomy, osteology, ex- 

 hibit arrested or progressive ascent in each kind ; the lower pointing to the higher 

 forms, the higher to the highest, from the fluid in an elastic sack, from radiate, 

 mollusk, articulate, vertebrate, up to man ; as if the whole animal world were only 

 a Hunterian Museum to exhibit the genesis of mankind." Emerson. 



The Pyralidce constitute an enormous complex of subfamilies, 

 genera, and species. They are found in all the temperate and 

 tropical parts of the world, but are more numerous in hot lands 

 than in the colder portions of the globe. Nearly eight hundred 

 species belonging to this family are already known to occur 

 within the United States and Canada, and the region will 

 undoubtedly yet yield many new species to science. We cannot 

 in these pages undertake to give even an outline of the genera 

 and the species, but we have selected a few for illustration in 

 order that the student, encountering these interesting insects, 

 may be able to at least recognize their relative position in the 

 great suborder with which this book deals. 



The moths of this family are described as follows by Sir 

 George F. Hampson in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society 

 of London for 1898, page 590: "Proboscis and maxillary palpi 

 usually well developed; frenulum present. Fore wing with vein 

 \a usually free, sometimes forming a fork with \b\ \c absent; 5 

 from near lower angle of cell; 8, 9 almost always stalked. Hind 

 wing with veins \a, b, c present; 5 almost always from near 

 lower angle of cell; 8 approximated to 7 or anastomosing with it 

 beyond the cell. 



Larva elongate, with five pairs of prolegs. Pupa with seg- 

 ments 9-1 1 and sometimes also 8 and 12 movable, not protruding 

 from cocoon on emergence." 



The Pyralidce have been divided into a number of subfamilies. 

 Of the subfamilies represented in our fauna, we shall in the fol- 

 lowing pages give illustrations of a few species which are com- 



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