312 



THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE 

 MOTHS OF THE SUBFAMILY BISTONINAE. 



J. W. HESLOP HARRISON. D.Sc. 



XII.— THE GENUS PHIGALIA (DUPONCHEL). 



Phigalia pedaria (Fab.). Distribution : — Central Europe, 

 the British Isles, Southern Scandinavia, Northern Italy, 

 Russia, the Uralsk, Siberia and the Ussuri District. 



Phigalia sinuosaria (Leech). Japan. 



Phigalia titea (Cramer). Atlantic America as far north as 

 Canada and as far south as Texas. 



Phigalia (?) verecundaria (Leech). The Japanese area. 



Phigalia, with all due respect to its apterous females, bears 

 no close relationship to any of the genera of like peculiarities, 

 the wanderings of which we have already followed. Those 

 genera are of immediate evolution from the Megabiston Lycia 

 line whilst the present, by the presence of the prominently 

 spined harpe on the male genital valves, is thrown very closely 

 indeed to the members of the closed section of the Amphid- 

 asyds on the one hand, and to the true Boarmiince on the other. 

 To certain species in the latter group, as illustrated by Arich- 

 anna melanaria and A. hamiltoni, it comes near enough in 

 the male genitalia as to indicate an alliance of immediate 

 phylogenetic value. 



Without encroaching further on the subject matter of 

 my essay on the phylogeny of the Bistonince, enough has been 

 said to demonstrate that Phigalia arose at some point where 

 the Amphidasyd Bistonines and the specialised Boarmiince 

 rubbed shoulders with one another. Such contact occurs at 

 many stations, but most of these may be dismissed from our 

 calculations as representing stations reached by migrating forms 

 spreading from the same centre under the action of the same 

 compelling forces, and therefore hurried along the same path. 



But both groups in question attain their maximum develop- 

 ment in Eastern Asia, as does also the genus Phigalia. The 

 natural inference, therefore, is that in Phigalia we have a 

 genus of Eastern origin ; and, allowing for its preference for 

 temperate climates, its original home was Northern Asia. 



Where do we find its habitats of to-day ? We find them 

 precisely in the positions upon which Amphidasys betularia 

 and its various forms have a firm hold but with this difference, 

 that the latter species, in its Palseotypical form, A. cognataria, 

 without betraying the slightest divergence from type, exists 

 in all the recognised abodes of Tertiary relict forms. The 

 present genus, whilst undeniably existing in the same habitats, 

 displays a noteworthy difference inasmuch as in each station 

 it appears in the guise of a distinct species. Nor must it be 



Naturalist, 



