225 



Australian lepidoptera of the Group Geometrites. 



By A. Jefferis Turner, M.D., F.E.S. 



[Read September 14, 1922.] 



Hitherto I have resfarded the moths here dealt with as 

 forming a single family, the Geometridae. Recent study of 

 the families belonging to the Noctuoidea (Caradrinina of 

 Meyrick) has caused me to revise my opinions. The families 

 Syntomidae, Arctiadae, Hypsidae, Nolidae, and Noctuidae, 

 though natural and necessary, yet in the structure of their 

 more typical and primitive genera are so closely allied, that 

 we must reconsider the value of our family groups of other 

 sections of the Lepidoptera. There should be a general 

 correspondence in the structural value of family characters, 

 though a precise equivalence is, of course, impossible. I 

 propose, therefore, to regard the Larentiadae, etc., no longer 

 as merely subfamilies, but as groups of family rank. This 

 was indeed done long since by Mr. Meyrick in his British 

 Lepidoptera v/liere he includes them with the Notodontoidae 

 and other families in the larger group Notodontina. The 

 weak point in this classification, it has seemed to me, is that 

 the relationship, that binds together the geometrid families 

 into one group, is not expressed, but is lost in the larger 

 and looser complex. This difficulty may be avoided, and I 

 think its avoidance is necessary for any satisfactory classifica- 

 tion, by placing them as a distinct division, the Geometrites, 

 in a larger group the Notodontoidea, which I conceive as 

 corresponding generally, but not exactly, with Meyrick's 

 Notodontina. 



The first three families I have already revised in former 

 publications, but much remains to be added to bring them to 

 completeness at the present date. The Oenochromidae I 

 have not yet studied in detail, and of the Boarmiadae I have 

 published only a partial and incomplete revision. In these 

 two families I shall merely describe a small number of new 

 forms. 



Fam. LARENTIADAE. 



I give a new key to the Australian genera, in which 

 • many of the names differ from those formerly adopted. Mr. 

 L. B. Prout informs me that it has been ascertained that the 

 names Cldaria, Larentia, etc., of Treitschke were published 

 earlier than Ilifdriomena, Xanthorh o'e , etc., of Hubner. He 

 has also helped me much by indicating the European types 



