366 BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



thai (Vigelius), Bergiin, Glogau, Schneeberg, Stelzing (Zell. coll.), Kieshof, 

 Waldwiese, Pennin (Paul and Plotz) Walportzheim (Maassen). Italy: throughout, 

 not common (Curd), Lombardy, common (Turati), Modena (Fiori), Piedmont, 

 Calabria (Speyer), Roman Campagna — Tivoli (Calberla), Sicily (Mina-Palumbo), 

 Alassio (Chapman). Netherlands : southern half of Netherlands (Snellen), eastern 

 provinces not rare, Breda, &c. (Heylaerts). Roumania : common, Slanic, Gruma- 

 zesti (Caradja). Russia: Baltic Provinces, Neu Kasseritz, St. Petersburg (Sintenis), 

 Wolmar (Lutzau), Moscow (Albrecht), Volga dist. — Kasan (Eversmann), St. 

 Petersburg (Erschoff), Livonia, Caucasus prov. (Speyer), near Kokenhusen (Nolcken). 

 Spain : Barcelona, Tibidado, Vallvidrera (Cuni y Martorell), Grenada (Rarabur), 

 Catalonia (Martorell y Peiia), Ronda (Speyer), Teruel (Zapater). Switzerland : 

 Bernese Alps, Gadmenthal (Jaggi), Upper Engadine (Pfaffenzeller), Albula Pass, 

 Weissenstein (Zeller), Weissenberg, up to 1200m. (Huguenin), Chur, Fiirstenau 

 (Killias), Zurich (Frey coll.), Locarno (Chapman). 



Family : Psychldae. 



We have already noticed the principal facts relating to the habits 

 and structure of the Psychidae. The males vary much in their general 

 appearance, some having very wide ample wings and slender bodies, 

 whilst others have stronger and more pointed wings and stouter bodies, 

 nearly all are dark in colour, usually unicolorous, blackish or brownish, 

 some clothed with well-formed scales, others with hairlike scales, and 

 while some are practically opaque from the density of the wing- 

 clothing, others are transparent owing to the lack of it. The abdomen 

 and thorax are usually thickly covered with long hairs, and the 

 antennae strongly bipectinated, the dorsum of the shaft and pectina- 

 tions being scaled, except where (in Acanthopsyche, &c.) the scales 

 have, as a further development, been lost. There are no ocelli, the 

 palpi are generally obsolete, and the tongue is wanting, whilst the anterior 

 tibial spurs are usually long, the posterior short or wanting. The peculiar 

 manner in which the abdomen can be stretched in order to insert it in 

 the puparium for the purpose of copulation has already been noticed. 



The females are naked*, vermiform, without traces of wings, the 



* With regard to this statement there is much yet to be learned about the ? s 

 of the higher Psychids and their possible relationships, and one feature not yet 

 thoroughly worked out is that relating to the woolly clothing of the 6th and 7th 

 abdominal segments found in some of the higher Psychids, and its homology with 

 the anal tuft of the araneiform females. Some females have no such clothing and 

 others have it strongly developed. In the families already dealt with which have 

 not araneiform females — we may note Bijugis bombycella as having the ovipositor 

 surrounded by a small whitish downy riband, whilst that of B. rotundella, has a 

 tuft of short scales ; Psychidea nxidella is more woolly around the ovipositor than 

 Epichnopteryx pulla which is only slightly pilose. Of the higher Psychids, Bruand 

 notes the female of Scioptera plumistrella as having some woolly tufts on the posterior 

 segments, whilst that of Ptilocep>hala angustella (stomoxella) is said to have the last 

 three segments ornamented with small downy tufts, and the ? of Acanthopsyche 

 opacella is noted as possessing some small woolly tufts on segments 4-8. Chapman 

 reports it in Standfussia zermattensis, and writes (Entom. Rexord, xi., p. 235) : " The 

 7th abdominal segment is clothed with wool, anteriorly nearly all over, laterally for 

 the posterior half, narrowing dorsally so as to be narrow or wanting at the dorsal 

 line. The uncovered portion of this segment is so much telescoped into the 8th, 

 that the segment appears to be completely clothed. The 6th segment has a similar 

 clothing of wool, but so much less in amount as to form rather, perhaps, two 

 ventral and two slighter lateral patches ; a trace also occurs on the 5th segment. 

 This wool is wavy, closely set, and of a bluish-green colour, so that it may easily be 

 mistaken for a growth of blue mould, perhaps, because the contrast of the colour of 

 the wool with that of the general surface is much that of blue mould on cheese." 

 The female of Ptilocephala sicheliella is figured by Bruand with a grand anal tuft. 

 Is this more developed in those whose ? s finally drop out, from their cases, i.e., the 

 Papifugae of Standfuss ? 



