1892.] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 173 



vein in the latter family is forked at base. The secondaries have 

 eight veins, the two internal veins counting as one, vein 5 is almost 

 midway between 4 and 6, and the costal is out of the subcostal a 

 short distance from the base. The venation of the secondaries 

 IS Bombycid rather than Noctuid in character. The antennal 

 structure is the best and most obvious character. The species 

 strictly belonging to this family are usually black in color with 

 white or yellow spots or blotches and often irrorate with blue 

 scales. They fly by day as a rule, and our common eastern spe- 

 cies is, as a larva, quite destructive to grape. 



The Syntomidae are poorly represented in our fauna, but are 

 rich in genera and species in the tropics of both hemispheres. 

 They are rather small insects with filiform antennae, ocelli some- 

 times absent, but more usually present, body usually stout, pri- 

 maries large and secondaries usually proportionately small. The 

 secondaries have only one internal vein and lack the costal vein 

 altogether. There are never more than seven veins all told and 

 sometimes only four. The primaries have one internal vein; 

 veins 2 to 5 are quite widelv separated, veins 7 to 10 from one 

 stalk and crowded together close to the apex. Most of the genera 

 are found only in the southern part of our country, but Lyco- 

 mofpha, which is an aberrant member of the family, extends into 

 Canada. Our common species is L. phohis, and has the wings 

 yellow at base and black toward the tip. Though this species 

 belongs, structurally, to the Syntomidae, it gives but a very feeble 

 idea of \\ie beautiful forms that are allied to it in more congenial 

 climes. Often the wings are transparent or nearly so, and bright, 

 even striking colors abound. Odd and interesting structural 

 modifications are common, and one of these I have described in 

 volume I of " Entomologica Americana," where will be found a 

 complete study of Cosmosoma omphale. 



The Pyromorphidae are moderate or small-sized insects, often 

 with thinly scaled semi-transparent wings, slender body and fili- 

 form antennae, which in the male are often lengthily pectinated. 

 The head is small but distinct, and the ocelli are large and promi- 

 nent. The venation is distinctive. On the primaries there. are 

 two inner or free veins, and on the secondaries there are three 

 such veins. The costal vein of the secondaries is wanting, making 

 a combination not paralleled in any other family. The species 

 are rare as a rule, and are mostlv southern or southwestern, a 



