THE SPHINGO-MICROPTERYGIDES. 115 



I. GENEEALISED SPHINGO - MICROPTERYGIDES.— Micropterygides, 

 Nepticulides, Eucleides, Megalopygides, Heterogynides, Anthrocerides, 

 Psychides and Pterophorides. 



II. SPECIALISED SPHINGO - MICROPTERYGIDES. — Lasiocampides, 

 Eupterotides, Endromides, Bombycides, Saturniides and Sphingides. 



Some of these superfamilies are well-defined, but others have not 

 yet been very clearly separated (by our authorities) from the super- 

 families of the other stirpes that have undergone parallel development in 

 the imaginal condition. The most important fact to bear in mind when 

 considering the affinities of the generalised groups, is that the species of 

 some of the superfamilies are more specialised (or at least more modified) 

 in one stage than in the others, thus the Eucleids have a somewhat 

 specialised larva, and yet the pupa is among the most generalised (with 

 that of the Nepticulids) of all Lepidoptera, and we have just seen that 

 the more or less generalised Anthrocerides are considered, by Chapman, 

 to be, in some respects, as high as Papiiionids or Noctuids. The Megalopy- 

 gides are mainly separated from the Eucleides, owing to the presence of 

 seven pairs of abdominal prolegs (on the 2nd-7th and 10th abdominal 

 segments). The Eupterotides may be Lasiocampids, in the broadest 

 sense, but are here restricted to the " processionary " moths, Cnetho- 

 campa and its allies. The Bombycides, similarly, are restricted to the 

 group of which Bombyx mori is the type, and do not include the 

 Endromides, as suggested by Kirby, nor do they include the Notodonts, 

 Noctuids, and other superfamilies belonging to a quite distinct stirps, 

 as recently insisted upon by Dyar and Grote. There is a tendency to 

 split the Psychides into Tineid and Bombycid portions, but at present 

 we have no information supporting this view. 



With regard to the larvae of this stirps, it may be worth while to 

 recall attention here to a character that appears to be of some structural 

 importance. In almost all larvae belonging to the generalised super- 

 families of the Lepidoptera, tubercles iv and v are normally placed below 

 the spiracles, i.e., both are sub-spiracular. In this stirps, the larvae of the 

 generalised superfamilies follow the usual formula in this respect, but 

 there is a strong general tendency for tubercles iv and v to approximate, 

 and (especially after the first moult) to form a many-haired wart, a 

 character that is carried on also to many of the specialised super- 

 families. Nor, in those superfamilies (Lasiocampides, etc.), in which 

 there is a distinct tendency to the obliteration of the warts, owing to 

 the development of a hairy coat from the ordinary pile of the body, 

 does iv move up to form a distinctly post-spiracular tubercle, a line of 

 evolution very general in the Noctuo-Hepialid stirps, and probably also 

 in the Geometro-Eriocraniid. On the other hand, this movement is said 

 to take place in Aydistis, at present classified with the Pterophorides. 



The diagramatic representation (PI. I) will illustrate roughly what 

 we consider the probable lines of development taken by this stirps, and 

 its connection with the other stirpes. It will be noticed that we have 

 attempted to avoid the method of deriving one superfamily from an 

 existent superfamily. The main line, we consider, carries on many of 

 the ancestral features of egg, larva, pupa and imago, some, maybe, 

 not much modified, whilst others are exceedingly modified. Many 

 characters have, of course, been entirely lost. From this main stem, 

 each branch has carried on certain broad characters, which have 

 become modified into those more special characters which mark the 

 superfamily. The break between the generalised and specialised 



