GEOMETRIB.E. — PSODOS. 143 



Duponchel, in his description of the French Lepidoptera, proposed 

 48, to embrace the French species : this last author, in common with 

 Latreille, forms his primary groups from a consideration of t!ie 

 number of legs in the larvai ; but from the reasons assigned by mo 

 in vol. ii. p. 4, I have endeavoured to render the indigenous genera 

 cognizable by brief characters, drawn up from the external dif- 

 ference (as far as possible) of the perfect insect, and as a primary 

 step have in some measure followed the method of Linne, by 

 dividing them agreeably to their contour, though something more 

 than " mere outline " is requisite to be attended to In their investi- 

 gation ; and it may be added, that their distribution into two 

 groups (improperly termed Jhmilies), in which the males of one 

 have the antennae pectinated, and of the other ciliated or nearly 

 simple, is evidently unnatural, inasmuch as the genera Rumia and 

 Ourapteryx, professedly of difficult location, Iiave the male an- 

 tennae simple, though closely allied to insects having strongly pec- 

 tinated antennae. Again, Treitschke and Duponchel appear to 

 take no account of the occasionally pectinated antennce of some 

 females, e. g. in Pericallia, but associate that genus with others in 

 which the antennae of the females are simple, and in some male 

 insects (as in Odontopera) scarcely pectinated, the contour of the 

 wings and the magnitude of the body being totally dissimilar: the 

 variations in the structure of the legs appear also to have been 

 unattended to, judging from the locations of such insects as Psycho- 

 phora marginata and Thymiaria, the genus Pachycnemia, Lozo- 

 gramma, &c. 



Genus C L X 1 1 . — P s o d o s , 7 'rci tsch le. 



Palpi porrect, projecting beyond the forehead, very hairy : maxillcE long; wings 

 generally of black or dark hues ; body the same, slightly hairy, and slender. 



AntenncE thickened, and simple, in both sexes. Metamorphoses unknown. 



k 



The insects of this genus are of dull and extremely sombre hues, 

 generally black or smoky, and but rarely enlivened with gay tints; 

 notwithstanding which they are fond of gambolling in the sun- 

 shine, whereby they approach in manner to final insects of the 

 group M'hich has lately been concluded. 



Never having had an opportunity of examining a species of this 



