42 WILLIAM T. M. FORBES 



Superfamily Sphingoidea. Larva with many minute secondary 

 hairs, obscuring the primaries, which are single; in first stage with 

 seta v higher than iv; i of eighth segment of abdomen united on mid- 

 dorsal line, usually on a horn. Egg of flat type, usually spherical. 

 Imago heavy-bodied, with very strong wings; no tympanum; fore 

 wing with 3d A a strong tubular vein, running into 2d A; hind wing 

 with Sc and R closely parallel, connected by R 1} which is as strong 

 as the other veins. Abdomen almost always spined along posterior 

 edge of segments. 



Family 45. Sphingidse. Characters of the superfamily. 



Superfamily Noctuoidea. Larvae with variable vestiture, often with 

 tufted hair; seta (or wart) iv widely separated from v, higher, some- 

 times behind spiracle; hooks or prolegs uniordinal in a single band. 

 Egg upright. Imago with a stretched membrane in metepimeron which 

 is more or less broken up into several sclerites; hood on base of abdo- 

 men, either above level of spiracle or enclosing it, occasionally lost; 

 ocelli often present; maxillary palpi present and scaled, but almost 

 always minute; 3d A of fore wing weak, hind wing with Sc and R 

 never divergent from base, rarely connected by a brace-vein to frenu- 

 lum, never closer together beyond cell than along cell, usually fused 

 for part of length of cell or connected by a cross vein. Cu quadrifid, 

 except in the Notodontidae, and the western family Dioptidse, which 

 also always lack the hood. 



Family 46. Notodontidae. Cu trifid; Sc and R of hind wing independent, or 

 connected by a weak cross vein; larva with anal prolegs more or less reduced 

 or modified; almost invariably raised in resting position. 



Family 47. Liparidae. Cu quadrifid, as in the following families; palpi short; 

 tongue rudimentary, ocelli absent; antennae plumose in male; hood above spiracle. 

 Sc and R of hind wing connected by a cross vein, or touching at a point, more 

 than a third way out on cell. Larva with tufted hair, with two bright -colored 

 dorsal glands on abdomen. 



Family 48. Noctuidae. Palpi various; tongue normally functional; ocelli present 

 (except in Menopsimus), hood usually enclosing spiracle, less often above spiracle 

 or obsolete. Sc and R of hind wing . touching at a point, less than a third way 

 out on cell, or shortly fused; larva with either simple or tufted hair; in the 

 latter case with secondary hair also, or with wart iv much lower on seventh 

 abdominal segment than the others, and often obsolete. 



Family 49. Agaristidae. Like the Noctuidse; antennae clubbed, hood absent. 



Family 50. Arctiidae. Tongue often weak; ocelli always present; Sc and R 

 fusing for at least a fifth, usually a half of length of cell, but not beyond end 

 of cell; hood above spiracle. Larva with tufted and without secondary hair, the 

 tufts rarely lost in last stage; wart iv of seventh abdominal segment not lower 

 than on others. Two subdorsal warts on mesothorax 'and metathorax. 



Family 51. Lithosiidae. Similar to the family. Arctiidse, with the ocelli lost; 

 wings smooth-scaled; hood sometimes lost. Larvae usually with tufted hair much 

 reduced in last stage; but present, at least when young; when well developed 



