cviii Affinities of Psyche. 



or thus, 



Heterogynis 



. Psyche 

 Bombyx Tinea 



or again as Herrich-Schaeffer has it, 



Heterogynis 



Psyche . 



Bombyx . Tinea 



The above diagrams show, by means of the dotted lines of demarcation, how 

 readily the Psychidze may be referred to either of the groups in question without any 

 real disturbance of their position. The first of these, so far as relates to Psyche, ac- 

 cords with my view of the subject, and apparently with that of my friend Stainton, as 

 the second does with that of my friend H. Doubleday. I have, therefore, given them a 

 corresponding locus standi in my forthcoming Catalogue of British Lepidoptera, now 

 printing for the trustees of the British Museum. But as our native lists will not suffici- 

 ently exhibit their connexion (or indeed that of several other groups) with their allies, I 

 may proceed to point out from the European catalogues some distant relationships, 

 that appear to subsist between them and the Bombyces, more especially among the 

 Arctiadse. In one genus of this family (Cycnia) the wings are clothed with such very 

 fine scales as to appear somewhat transparent ; the male being remarkably Psychi- 

 form in habit. Again in another (Trichosoma) the females are nearly apterous, while 

 in Penthophora Morio the wings of the female are considerably enlarged, but 

 scarcely above half the size of those of the males ; and in Typhonia (whose larva 

 resides in a moveable cot) those of the female exceed those of the male, and the 

 genus, which is truly Bombycifonn, is placed among the Psychidae of Boisduval, Du- 

 ponchel, &c. Moreover, all the above insects are of sombre colours, like the Psychidae. 

 Furthermore, the genus Nudaria has the wings slightly clothed with scales, and the 

 females of Orgyia are apterous, as they are likewise in Heterogynis, which has a 

 naked larva, and in habit closely resembles Procris. 



In the catalogue above alluded to, I have referred, with doubt, the Psyche Fe- 

 bretta of Fonscolombe to P. nigricans : this portion of the work was written long be- 

 fore I possessed the latter insect, or indeed before the female had been discovered, and 



