124 



BRITISH LEPIDOPTEEA. 



that of placing one portion of it among the Tineids, and the other 

 portion (structurally identical) among the Bombycids, to examine care- 

 fully the characters on which the division is made. Our readers can 

 now compare the reasons given by Stainton, Meyrick, and Barrett for 

 separating, and those of Chapman and Packard for uniting, them. 



There can be no doubt that all the Psychids are so closely related 

 that they must represent one superfamily. The Taleporiidae differ 

 somewhat from the Psychidae, being in many ways less specialised. 

 Meyrick and Hampson both agree really that the two groups should 

 follow each other closely in some way or other. Hampson notes 

 (Moths of India, i., p. 289) that the Solenobiid section of the Tineids 

 would follow the Psychids, if the Heterocera could be arranged in 

 lineal series. Meyrick places Fumea with the Tineids, Hampson with 

 the Psychids. Meyrick's division would tabulate thus : — 



1. Hindwings, 8 connected by bar with upper margin of cell ; ? fertilised in the 

 pupa-ease = Paychidae. 



2. Hindwings, 8 free from cell ; ? emerges and is fertilised on the outside of 

 the case = Taleporiidae (including Fumea). 



As has been stated before, however, there is great variation in the 

 Psychid neuration, so that the latter goes for little. We are really 

 unable to understand this division without making a fetish of the bar 

 between 8 and the cell. 



Bruand says that the Psychid position of rest is similar to that of 

 the Bombycids. In Fumea crassiorella, Proutia salicolella, and even in 

 Psyclwides rerhitella this character exists as strongly as in Canephora 

 unicolor (graminella) and the allied species. At the same time, Bruand 

 admits that " the wing-characters, antennae, palpi, &c, of the Tale- 

 porias are nearer those of Psyche, strictly so-called, than those of the 

 Heterogynids. He further asserts that the group included under the 

 name Taleporia resembles more that of which G. unicolor (graminella) 

 is the type, than that comprising 0. albida and O.-plumifera. 



Having now indulged in a general criticism of the views adopted 

 by various authors, it becomes necessary to state our own position : — 

 With regard to the affinities of the superfamily as a whole, there are 

 two possible positions in which it can be placed indicated in the 

 " Phylogenetic tree " represented in vol i., pi. 1 of this work. These 

 are on — (1) The Sphingo-Micropterygid stirps. (2) The Geometro- 

 Eriocraniid stirps. Superficially, the imagines of the Psychidae and 

 EpichnojJterygidae approach the Bombycid section of the former stirps, 

 those of the Solenobiidae and Taleporiidae approach the Tineid section 

 of the latter. Beally there appears little doubt that they originated 

 at a point anterior to that at which the Tineids proper left the main 

 stem, the two having had, far back in their phytogeny, a common 

 ancestor with a generalised larva and case-bearing habit. Their general 

 characters and affinities with the Sphingo-Micropterygid stirps have 

 been previously discussed (ante, vol. i., pp. 117-118). We have little 

 hesitation in placing the families with winged females as the more 

 generalised members of the group, and those with the araneiform and 

 vermiform females (which are in reality highly specialised) as the less 

 generalised. 



The relationship of the families to each other can only be deter- 

 mined by a due recognition of the characters offered in all the stages of 

 the existence of an insect. As the lack of the imaginal tongue and the 



