a SacTihearing Bomhyx. 7 



ilominal margin of the lower, about halfway between its base and 

 anal angle ; within the angle of this fascia, and near the centre of 

 the upper wing, is an open, rather indistinct, lunule. 



Although I feel that it would be an act of presumption on my 

 part to attempt to locate this curious genus, after such eminent 

 Lepidopterists as Dr. Harris and Edward Doubleday have de- 

 clined doing so, still I may venture to call the attention of the 

 Society to a few characters which are as strongly pronounced as 

 they are remarkable for their conflicting nature. 



In the first place, it seems almost impossible, on a cursory exa- 

 mination of Mr. Wing's admirable sketches of the larva in its 

 case, not to be struck with its great similarity to that of the Psy- 

 chides. The larva of Ps?/c^e Villosella, of Ochsenheimer, Herrich- 

 Schaeffer and Bruand, found by Mr. Dale on Parley Heath, offers 

 points of similarity that at the first blush seem almost conclusive : 

 not only is the general character as regards figure, the short pro- 

 legs, the structure of the anal segment, &c. very similar in tlie 

 two, but the distribution of colour, the roughness and blackness 

 of the head and prothorax, and the vittated meso-and metathorax, 

 are very nearly identical. 



The pupa, judging from Dr. Harris's very minute description, 

 possesses a character distinctive of a very different section of the 

 Bomhijces : the abdominal segments are banded with a series of 

 minute claw-like processes, which make it rough to the touch, and 

 by means of which the insect can force its way out of the case, 

 cocoon, gallery, or other situation, in which its unerring instinct 

 may have placed it ; such a character I find in Xi/leules, Zeuzera, 

 Hep'mlus, /Egeria, and Trochilium. 



The Imago has several characters, which are not only conflict- 

 ing with those of the preparatory state, but which are also con- 

 flicting among them ; thus the antennae of the male greatly 

 resemble those of the male Zeuzera, those of the female differing 

 from those of the female Zeuzera ; and the venation of the wings 

 in both sexes differing entirely from that oi Zeuzera. The divided 

 and divaricating extremity of the abdomen in the male is a marked 

 and notable character : this character gives its name to Edward 

 Doubleday's genus Sch'izura (Entomologist, p. 59), and the de- 

 scription of the male antennae in Schizura closely agrees with the 

 male antennae in Perophora, while the female antennae totally differ 

 in the two genera ; those of I'eropliora being pectinated, those 

 of Schizura setaceous. In LochmcEus, Hcterocampa, and other 

 American Bombyces, we find points of similarity and discre- 

 pancy equally conflicting. Hcterocampa, in very many charac- 



