86 



Entomologists better able to supply that need than those I 

 have the honour to address. 



One word of warning I venture to make to those whose 

 studies do not embrace any of the foreign Lepidoptera- 

 Heterocera ; our limited insular fauna does not admit of form- 

 ing from it alone much generalization ; there are important 

 families of the division under consideration which have no 

 representatives in these islands ; of others, there are very few 

 indigenous species ; the Zygaenidse, for instance, are divided 

 into at least nine sub-families, only two of which, the Anthro- 

 cerinse and Adscitin^, represented each by a single genus, 

 occur in the British Isles, viz., Anthrocera and Adscita 

 {Pfocris) . 



One generalization I venture to make. It appears that 

 each of the great divisions of the Lepidoptera-Heterocera 

 contains within its limits both very large and very small 

 species, and that the evolution from the lowest to the highest 

 forms has proceeded in ediCh pari passu. 



It is a very singular fact that so many of the families stand 

 quite alone, having almost no apparent connection with any 

 other, so that the order in which they should be placed in 

 relation to each other is not apparent ; to take the Zyggenidae 

 again as an illustration, whether placed amongst the so-called 

 Sphinges, or, as Dr. Chapman places them, next the 

 Cochliopodidse among the Incompletse, they appear to have 

 no affinity with their assumed neighbours. 



The late Professor Westwood, when placing the Zygsenidae 

 next the Sphingidae remarked, " We have here a family of 

 insects possessing characters as completely at variance with 

 those of the preceding as are to be met with amongst any of 

 the remaining groups of the Lepidoptera." It is clear from 

 this that the Professor was fully alive to the untenable 

 position in which they had been absurdly placed. 



The very small number of genera of the Zygaenidse found 

 in these Islands, and the very remote affinity they have with 

 any other family represented in our fauna, causes their isola- 

 tion to appear greater than is the case when the comparison 

 is made with some of the purely exotic families. 



To give a further illustration of how little we can generalize 

 from a survey of British Lepidoptera-Heterocera only, let me 

 draw your attention to the Limacodidae (Cochliopodidas), of 

 this large family. We have in this country but two species, 

 viz., Apoda anellana, Linn, {teshido, Fabr.), and Heterogenea 

 cruciata, Knoch. {asella, Fabr.) ; but it contains considerably 

 more than a hundred genera. Whether the genera so as- 



