KiRBY, "Cat. Lep. Het," 1892. Dyar, "Can. Ent.," 1898. 



Clisiocampa* neustria. Malacosoma* neustria. 



„ castre7isis. „ castrensis. 



Eriogaster lanestris. Eriogaster lanestris. 



Philudoria\ potatoria. Cosmotriche\ potatoria. 



PhyllodesmaX ilicifolia. Epicnap/ernX ilicifolia. 



Gastropacha^ quercifolia. Eutricha% qiiercifoUa. 



The lists give no suggestion of what is the possible line of evolu- 

 tion of these moths. So far as our British genera are concerned, 

 they may be assumed to have originated from a hypothetical base, 

 which has given off Poicilocampa and Trichhira on the one side, and 

 Cosmotriche, Epicfiaptera, and Eutricha on the other, and has reached 

 perhaps its highest point of specialisation in Lasiocampa. The 

 following tree (Fig. i) will perhaps illustrate the relationships of 

 these. 



Having now considered the relationship of our Lasiocampid moths 

 to each other, we may attempt to discover their relationship with 

 the groups to which they are most nearly allied. Here we find that 

 almost all recent authorities are more or less agreed. By the special 

 consideration of each of the early stages it has been shown that the 

 Lasiocampids belong to the Sphingo-Micropterygid stirps, a section of 

 the moths that has the Cochlidids and Anthrocerids among its most 

 generalised, and the Sphingids and Saturniids among its most 

 speciaUsed members. To this group Dyar refers the Pterophorids, 

 and Chapman the Nepticulids, and Micropterygids. 



If I had to illustrate in a rough and ready manner the relationship 

 of the chief families belonging to this stirps, I should do it as follows 

 (see Fig. 2) : the Bombycides proper should have appeared just 

 above the Lasiocampides. 



The whole of this stirps is characterised by the possession of a flat 

 egg, with the micropylar axis horizontal, almost always longer than the 

 transverse and vertical axes, the three axes being usually of different 

 lengths. 



The flat scale-like egg of the Cochlidids falls rather badly into this 

 section ; it is much more like those of the Tortricids than any other 



* Kirby gives Clisiocainpa, Curt. (1828), for neustria and castrensis, and 

 Malacosoma, Hb. (1822?), for alpicola {apicola), franconica, and intermedia. 

 Dyar unites them into one genus under the older name Malacosoma. 



■\ Philudoria is one of Kirby's own names (1892). He uses Cosmotriche, Hb. 

 (1822?), for Itmigera and its allies. For this latter group Dyar follows 

 Aurivillius, and uses Selenephera, Ramb. This seems to be the same as Seleno- 

 phora, Ramb. (1866), which Kirby gives as a synonym of Dendrolimiis, Germ. 



% Kirby uses Phyllodesma, Hb. (1822?), and gives Epicnaptera, Ramb. 

 (1866), as a synonym. Dyar drops Phyllodesma altogether. 



§ Kirby uses Gastropacha, Ochs. (1810), for quercifolia, and gives Eutricha, 

 Hbr-fi8io?), as a synonym. Dyar employs the latter, rejecting Gastropacha, 

 because " it is a synonym of Lasiocampa, being proposed in the same sense to 

 include all the species of the family." 



