512 PROF. J. O. WESTWOOD ON THE URANIID^-. 



Rejecting, then, the Rhopalocera (including the Hesperiidae), the typical Sphingidae, 

 Castniidse, and Hepialidse, together with the whole of the Microlepidoptera, we have 

 to inquire which of the remaining Macrolepidopterous groups show the greatest amount 

 of affinity to the Uraniidae. 



If we regard the Noctuidfe, we find a robust body with comparatively small wings 

 formed for powerful flight, and generally marked with a peculiar reniform and a cir- 

 cular spot or patch in the middle of the fore wings ; the antennse are also almost 

 invariably slender and setaceous, becoming gradually attenuated to the tip. In this 

 family, however, is found a group (Erebus^) with the palpi elongated, terminated by a 

 slender joint, which probably induced Dalman to place them, under the name of 

 Thysania, with the Uraniidse. 



Plate LXXXVI. fig. 4 represents the head of Erebus [Patula) macrops, Linn., Guen. 

 (Bubo, Fabr., Donovan, Ins. China, pi. 44. f. 1). The venation of the wings, however 

 (Plate LXXXVI. tig. 1 fore wing, and iig. 2 hind wing of the male, and fig. .3 hind 

 wing of the female), of the same Indian species of Erebus denuded of scales, is entirely 

 different from that of any of the Uraniidse, the fore wings having the small subcostal 

 cell {sc. c) and the lower discoidal vein {c 5') arising close to the base of the third 

 branch (c 3) of the median vem from a very short transverse discocellular vein. 



Mr. MacLeay, in his memoir on Urania, noticed the resemblance between the more 

 or less spherical eggs of Urania and Catocala. The last-named genus, however, is 

 an aberrant one in the family Noctuidae ; and the oology of the Lepidoptera has not 

 been sufficiently studied to aUow much weight to be given to the character of the eggs 

 of these insects. At all events, as Mr. MacLeay remarked, the form of the eggs of 

 Urania is a very common one in Lepidopterous insects. Hence we may reject the 

 Noctuidce from amongst the near relations of the Uraniidse. 



Of the remaining families, typified by the Linnean genera Bombyx and Geometra, 

 M. Guenee is decidedly in favour of the latter : — " II me semble," says he (Hist. Nat. 

 Ins. Lep. ix. p. 4), " qu'aucune ne peut lutter a cet egard avec les Geometres. Nous 

 retrouvons d'abord dans la premiere famille de ces dernieres que personne ne sera 

 tente de disputer aux Phalenes une nervulation [venation] exactement semblable. Les 

 antennes quoique legerement renflees pres du sommet chez plusieurs Uranides, sont fili- 

 formes ou plutot setacees, et tout le monde sait que ce n'est que chez les Geometra que 

 cette forme est vraiment normale. L' absence des stemmates et des taches reniformes 

 et orbiculaires suffit pour les eloigner des Noctuelles et les rapprocher des Geometra oh 

 ces caracteres manquent egalement. Les queues des ailes inferieures, avec les taches 

 ocellees qui les accompagnent ne se retrouvent que chez les Geometres de la premiere 

 fiimille ou chez les Satm-nides qui les preccderont dans la distribution que j'ai adoptee. 

 L' aspect general des deux dernieres families, leurs ailes minces, etendues, leur vol diurne 



' SI. Boisduval (^in Nouv. Ajin. du Mus. ii. p. 260) introduced the genus Urania between Erebus and the 

 GeometridiE. 



