March, 1898.] GROTE : CLASSIFICATION OF LEPIDOPTERA. IT 



gap. The gradual stages of disintegration of the crossvein, such as I 

 found in the Pierinse and Nyinphalinse I have not so distinctly met with 

 in the Emperor Moths. But the first step towards this stage is marked in 

 the Saturnianae and has already everywhere attained full expression. It is 

 the conversion of the crossvein between IV2 and IV 1 into the physio- 

 logical base of IV2, so that the crossvein proper seems to lie merely be- 

 tween IV2 and IV3 and we can classify the Saturnianae under the rubric : 

 vein IV2 continuous or on a long stem with veinlVi. That the Satur- 

 nianae have attained a high relative grade of specialization is seen by the 

 loss of vein VIII on secondaries and the absorption of the radical veins 

 on primaries. They have lagged behind the Attacinae in the first direc- 

 tion : the suppression of the Media and its system. One point more 

 and I have done with this typical subfamily. In the Saturniades vein 

 VIII appears as a loop to VII on primaries. In Actias and Telea 

 (proving the relationship of the dissimilar appearing imagos) this vein 

 VIII has an outer inferior spur or prolongation. Is this a trace of the 

 vein VIII in its former position as a parallel vein ? Or is it a trace of an 

 absorbed additional vein ? Or is it a sporadic, or extra-growth ? We 

 notice it in Castnia. Its isolated appearance in two Saturnian genera 

 makes it remarkable. Misled by Mr. Meyrick's figures of Geometridae* 

 I at one time thought the curved internal vein of Papilio might corre- 

 spond to the internal vein figured by him in Venilia macularia. But it 

 seems not, since the vein figured by Mr. Meyrick does not exist in the 

 Geometrid form. „ 



Next, we come to the Hemileucinae, and here is a case of dis- 

 puted classification, a matter I try here to uncover, with the help of the 

 annexed diagrams of neuration obtained by photographic process. 

 Both Professor Comstock and Dr. Dyar unite my Hemileucinae with my 

 Automerinae under one " family," which they call Hemileucidae after 

 Packard. The origin of this notion may be traced back to Grote and 

 Robinson, who, in 1866, established the group Hemileucini with the 

 same contents.')" A glance at the figure of the neuration of Hemileuca 

 maia, which may also be found in Professor Comstock's beautiful Man- 

 ual, p. 342 (a book I regret to have only recently become acquainted 

 with), shows that its condition is what we might expect from a more 

 generalized Saturnian. On the secondaries vein VIII is retained, and 

 the retention of this vein is a generalization and repeated everywhere. 

 This affords no proof of the want of relationship between Hemileuca 

 and Saturnia ; if it did, it would equally imply a want of consanguinity 



* Consult : 111. Wochenschrift fur Entomologie, Band II, No. 38. 

 t Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist. Vol. VIII, 376, October, i860. 



