FAMILY 



"The study of entomology is one of the most fascinating of pursuits. It 

 takes its votaries into the treasure-houses of Nature, and explains some of the 

 wonderful series of links which form the great chain of creation. It lays open 

 before us another world, of which we have been hitherto unconscious, and shows 

 us that the tiniest insect, so small perhaps that the unaided eye can scarcely see it, 

 has its work to do in the world, and does it." REV. J. G. WOOD. 



The following characterization of the family is adapted from 

 the pages of Sir George F. Hampson's "Moths of India," Vol. I, 

 p. 432: 



' A family of moths generally of nocturnal flight, though 

 some genera, as Aroa of the Eastern Hemisphere and Hemero- 

 campa, are more or less diurnal in their habits. The perfect 

 insects are mostly clothed with long hair-like scales upon the 

 body. The males have the antennae highly pectinated, the 

 branches often having long terminal spines, and spines to retain 

 them in position. The females often have a largely developed 

 anal tuft of hair for covering the eggs. The proboscis is absent. 

 The legs are hairy. The frenulum is present, except in the genus 

 Ratarda, which does not occur in America. The fore wing with 

 vein \a not anastomosing with \b ; i^absent except in Ratarda ; 

 5 from close to lower angle of cell. Hind wing with two interna.l 

 veins; 5 from close to lower angle of cell, except in the eastern 

 genera Ga^alina and Porthesia, 8 nearly touching 7 at middle of 

 cell and connected with it by a bar. 



Larva hairy; generally clothed with very thick hair or with 

 thick tufts of hair, and forming a cocoon into which these hairs 

 are woven, they being often of a very poisonous nature.' 



Genus GYN^EPHORA Hiibner 



(i) Gynaephora rossi Curtis, Plate XXXVIII, Fig. 10, $, 

 Fig. ii,?. 



The genus is arctic, and the species is found in the arctic 



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