NOTES ON THE LIFE-HISTORIES OF SOME 

 NOTODONTIDiE. 



J^)V A. S. Packard. 

 I'ARr 1. 



As a result of recent studies on the early larval stages of this 

 group 1 have been led to consider it as on the whole the most 

 generalized or ancestral of all the Bombyces. In their general, 

 simple shape, their lack of tubercles, spines, stripes and spots, 

 the freshly hatched larvii; of Nadata, (iluphisia, (and probably 

 Lophodonta) seem like the nearest allies of the unknown ancestral 

 form from which the group originated, and which was probably 

 most closely related to the Noctuina, frt)m which it seems not 

 improbable that the Bombyces sprang. It is not improbable that 

 the stem-form which gave rise to the Noctuo-Bombyces, may have 

 also given origin to a series of some lost forms which served as 

 connecting links between the Noctuina and Bombycina. 



Heretofore our conceptions as to the true sequence of 

 Notodontian genera have been based on somewhat arbitrary and 

 erroneous considerations. It seems to us not unreasonable to 

 place (iluphisia, Nadata, and i.ophodonta at the base of the 

 series, and to let the hairy genera Dalana and Apatelodes follow ; 

 then would come Ichthyura which is both hairy and tubercled. 

 These should be succeeded by Notcnlonta and its allies, Nerice, 

 Pheosia, Edema and Dasylophia. These would lead up to 

 the group represented by Schizura; Hyparpax and Janassa would 

 connect the foregoing genera with Heterocamjxi ; of the latter 

 group of species, H . iiiarthcsia would seem to be an annectant form 

 binding the foregoing genera with Cerura, which is perhaps the 

 most modern anil specialized genus of the family. 



From some ancient forms resembling iEdcmasia coiicin/ia, with 

 its remarkable tubercles and sjiines, or from Pheosia with its 

 caudal horn, the genus Dryocampa may have sprung, this being 

 the ancestor or founder of the ne.xt nearest related family Cerato- 

 campidce. 'J'hat the NotodontidcX and Saturniidai are closely related 

 is also proved by the venation and other characters of the moths, as 

 we shall hereafter hope to show. 



Ichthyura inclusa Huhiicr. 



As the following account is based on living specimens, it may 

 replace my descripti(jn in the Proceedings of the P.oston Soc. Nat. 



