384 BRITISH LBPIDOPTERA. 



pholus, statices, acharon, styx," a sufficiently heterogeneous lot of species. 

 According to Kirby, the term Zygaena goes to the Arctiid series, and 

 Anthrocera, Scopoli [Introd. Hist. Nat., p. 454 (1777)] becomes the 

 correct generic title for the Burnet moths, whilst their superfamilyname 

 becomes Anthrocerides. There are three very well known subfamilies of 

 the group, the Anthrocerinae, Adscitinae [Procrinae), and the American 

 Pyromorphinae. Concerning the two latter, doubt has been expressed 

 whether they should not be united into a single subfamily, and 

 at most form two separate tribes of it. Packard considers the 

 Adscitids to be more generalised than the genus Anthrocera, and 

 he says that, judging from the neuration, he considers that Harrisina 

 has undergone little more modification than Ino. He adds : " Pyro- 

 morpha also seems rather more primitive than Zygaena {i.e., Anthro- 

 cera), and I see no reason for regarding Pyromorpha as the type 

 of a distinct family." 



The Anthrocerid ovum is oval, with a depression on the upper 

 surface. It has a very delicate, transparent shell, yellow in colour, 

 but remarkable for the fact that the yelk is usually collected at one 

 pole of the egg, leaving the other pole transparent. There is little 

 trace of ornamentation on the shell (the surface, however, is finely 

 reticulated in Adscita, Harrisonia, Aglaope and Pyromorpha); and Chap- 

 man thinks that the whole egg looks so soft and unprotected, that it 

 seems more suited for an internal situation, than for the exposed 

 position in which it is laid. 



The Anthrocerid larva is remarkable as being the only representative 

 of the Incompletae that has the Macro form of abdominal proleg, i.e., 

 with terminal hooks on the inner side only. Dyar describes the larva 

 (under the superfamily name of Anthrocerina) as having " the tubercles 

 converted into warts, or absent ; i and ii, as well as iv and v, approxi- 

 mate or consolidated." This author, however, includes the Pterophorids 

 (Plume moths) in the superfamily. 



The pupa of the Anthrocerids has the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th (and in the 

 male, the 7th) abdominal segments free, probably also the 1st and 2nd. 

 It very markedly opens the other incisions on dehiscence. The appen- 

 dages are only loosely attached ; the maxillary palpus (eye-collar) is 

 nearly or quite obsolete, but the dorsal head-piece is well-developed. 

 On dehiscence, the head parts are united together, and separated from 

 the other pupal structures, the glazed eye, however, being retained with 

 the head-parts, the internal pupal linings are very distinct, the pupa 

 also comes out some distance from the cocoon before the emergence of 

 the imago. 



The imago is generally brilliantly coloured, but there are some 

 striking exceptions. The species of Anthrocera have, usually, metallic 

 green or blue fore-wings, with brilliant crimson spots or streaks, and 

 crimson hind-wings, with a dark border. The species of Adscita 

 (Procris) have the fore-wings generally of an uniform green colour, with 

 dark hind-wings. In the species of Pyromorpha the wings are usually 

 of a smoky-brown colour, with their bases sometimes of a reddish or 

 yellow hue. The fore-wings are long compared with their breadth, 

 and the neuration is very generalised. The antennae of the Anthrocerids 

 proper, and Adscitids, show many marked differences, but those of the 

 Pyromorphids and Adscitids are very close together, the intense black- 

 ness of the former, noted by Bodine {Antennae of Lepidoptera, p. 33), 



