70 BULLETIN BROOKLYN ENTOM.-SOC. VOL. VII. September 188+ .] 
An introduction to a Classification of the 
N. A. Lepidoptera. | 
By JoHN B. Smitu. 
How do you know this is a Bomébycid, and this a Pyralid? These 
are questions not infrequently asked by collectors aud young entomo- 
logists when their material is named for them, and they discover that 
their arrangement according to apparent resemblance, was widely at 
fault. Now although an old collector or an advanced student can tell 
almost at a glance, to which group or even genus, a species is referable, 
yet this knowledge has come to him only by years of collecting, or by 
close study of large collections and a free use of literature, and this in- 
tuitive knowledge cannot be imparted. An explanation of the technical 
characters of the group or families is incomprehensible, because unfor- 
tunately few indeed are acquainted with the characteristics that are used in 
family classification. To give an answer to these questions—to furnish 
in concise, yet sufficiently clear terms the characters of the various fami- 
lies and at least their principal genera—to illustrate as much by pencil 
as by pen, the structural peculiarities of the Lepidoptera, is the object of 
the present series of papers. 
First will be given a brief review of the main characters used, then 
a translation and modification of Dr. Herrich-Schaffer’s table of families, 
which though not entirely accurate when applied to our fauna, still 
forms the basis of the present classification of American Lepidoptera, 
and must therefore be studied. Then will come a more comp'ete defini- 
tion of each family, exceptions and relationships will be noted, a brief 
synopsis of at least the ieading genera, and the characters used in generic 
separation will be given. Finally, will be given a synoptic classifi- 
cation of the Lepidoptera, reference being had only to the American 
forms. 
The first character made use of is found in the antennze, which are 
either enlarged or clavate at tip, as in the diurnes or Rhopalocera, pris- 
matic, as in the Spfzmgidae, and setaceous or bristle form, as in the 
Bombycidae, Noctuidae, and Geometridae. The families in which the an- 
tennz are not clavate at tip are classed as Afeferocera. Of the clavate 
antennze there are many modifications, the chief of which are shown on 
plate III. Fig. 1, of Papzlio, has an elongate, regularly arquate club; in 
fie 2,9 zener tris *Conic and somewhat flattened; in f 3, Colias, cylindric 
obconic, obtusely terminated at tip; inf 4, Argvnnis, it is abrupt, 
