75 



An idea that the affinities in the Lepidoptera are net-like and 

 not, as they seem to me, branch-like, has excused the classification, 

 especially of the Bombycidae, adopted by v. Heineman and Stau- 

 dinger, by which Subfamily groups are accorded Family rank, and 

 so incongruous a sequence is adopted, that this would seem the end 

 sought, rather than a natural arrangement of the Moths. No or 

 little allowance is made for comparative characters, and the severity 

 of the generic classification has permitted no adequate comprehen- 

 sion of these softer zoological forms. We miss any reference to 

 American genera (without which perhaps no true limitation can be 

 decided upon), either as illustrated by American writers or by the 

 pens of European authors Avho have investigated so largely the Lepi- 

 dopterous Faunae of other continents, v. Heineman establishes 

 the European genus Scodra, without reference to Guenee's Leptina, 

 from America, which it seems should have been compared.* On the 

 other hand Packard, in 1864, has indicated in several cases the com- 

 parative generic position of European Bombycidae, and, in 1865, we 

 have drawn attention to relationships between the Sphingidae of 

 either continent, and in particular to the position which the Euro- 

 pean Macrosila convolvuli and Sphinx ligustri occupy with regard 

 to the American species of the two genera. 



I give here a catalogue of our North American species referable 

 to Herrich-Schaefier's Family Cijmatophorina, for which I prefer 

 Boisduval's earlier term, and regard them as forming a sub-family 

 of the Noctuidae. Alone of any of the divisions of the family 

 heretofore proposed, they possess a distinctive structural feature, 

 found in the course of the costal nervure of the secondaries. 



1 Auf Seite 17, v. Heineman's Schmetterlinge Deutschlands und der Schweiz, steht, Z. 9, v. 

 unten, "bei der Hesperiengattung Cyclopaedes die Hinterschienen auch mit Mittelspornen." 

 Schlagt man, Seite 115, d. Gattung auf, so flndet sicli gerade des Gegentheil angegebeu : "Hiu- 

 terscliienen nur mit Endsporncn." 



