bOb BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



earth ; the Anthrocerid larvae are external feeders, and make a silken 

 boat-shaped cocoon, usually attached to a grass culm, or stone. The 

 antennae, too, offer another point of distinction between the imagines, 

 those of the Adscitids being bipectinated in the male, and serrated 

 in the female, whilst those of the Anthrocerids are gradually tbickened 

 from the base almost to tbe apex, and form a club, which thins off into 

 a fine tapering apical point. There is, however, much resemblance in 

 the clothing of the haired surface of the antennae in Adscita, Hairisina, 

 and Anthrocera. The first obtain their extra surface by pectinations, 

 the last by having thicker antennae, with a dense clothing of hairs. 

 Hampson groups (Moths of India, vol. i.) the Anthrocerids and 

 Adscitids into one subfamily, and one gathers that Anthrocera is the 

 only genus with clubbed antennae, whilst those with pectinated antennae 

 are numerous. 



Subfam. : adscitin^e. 

 Tribe : adscitidi. 



The difficulties of discriminating between a number of closely 

 allied species, when the species are practically of one uniform colora- 

 tion, as in those forming the tribe under consideration, and the 

 wings show no markings whatever, are very great. Staudinger found 

 the neuration quite unadapted for specific characters, because the 

 modifications which occur in the species are quite insignificant. The 

 form of the wing does not furnish a good specific character, nor could 

 Staudinger find any specific differences in the legs and palpi. The 

 antennae, however, enabled him to separate the European species into 

 two main groups : (1) With the antennae of the male pectinated to 

 the tip. (2) "With the last 8-10 joints forming a club. He also found 

 that, on the average, certain species always had a greater number of 

 joints than others. In spite of this, the variation in the number of 

 antennal joints in the same species is very considerable, and differences of 

 from four to six (and sometimes eight) joints are frequently found in the 

 same species. In the first group, the pectinations diminish more or 

 less rapidly in length, only appearing on the subterminal joints as 

 dentations, whilst in the second group, the pectinations of each joint 

 grow together in broad lamellae, which at first are always notched in 

 the middle, the notches gradually decreasing and disappearing on the 

 penultimate joint, the terminal joint forming a very flat roundish cone. 

 Moreover, these 8-10 terminal joints, which form the so-called ter- 

 minal club, are not connate, but only lie very close together. Accord- 

 ing to this arrangement, our British species work out as follows : — 

 I. — Antennae pointed ; anterior wings perceptibly broader anteriorly — 

 Rhayades ylobulariae. II. — Antennae ending in a club — Adscita statices, 

 A. geryon. Zeller also remarks on the longer, thinner and more filiform 

 antennae of R. ylobulariae, and observes that they terminate in a 

 longer point. 



Wallengren first used this character for generic subdivision, and 

 diagnosed (Skand. Heterocerfjdrilar, i., p. 88) the two genera, into 

 which he subdivided the species as follows : — 



1. Ino, Leach. — Antenna extrorsum subclavatte. Lingua cornea longior. 



2. lihagades. — Antennae obsolete fusiformes, apice acuto. Lingua mollis, 

 pectore brevior. 



On this division, globxdariae would fall into Rhagades, geryon and 



