LACHNEIDES. 445 



Gloveria, Thauma, and (the rare) Quadrina. The typical specialised 

 scale is, he says, in this family " especially characterised by its 

 many long acute fingers or teeth. These fingers vary in length 

 compared with the whole length of the scale from tip of pedicel to tip 

 of middle finger from one-third of this length, or even less, as in 

 Clisiocampa, to two-thirds or more, as in Tolype. The scales of Clisio- 

 campa depart most widely from the typical scale of the family in the 

 shortness and small number of fingers. . . . The arrangement of 

 the scales in rows (in Gloveria) is fairly apparent, but there is no such 

 regularity or tiered arrangement as is represented by the more 

 specialised Frenatae." He further notices (loc. cit., pp. 65-66) a parti- 

 cular form of scale specialisation, which he illustrates by reference to 

 Gloveria, but which be states is, with certain modifications noted, 

 pretty fairly characteristic of the family Lasiocampidae. The scale-hair 

 becomes a little flattened and widened ; then it divides at its distal 

 end into two fingers, the cleft not extending very far along the length 

 of the scale ; a shortening of the proximal portion of the scale and a. 

 widening of that part of the scale between the pedicel and the base of 

 the two fingers is next apparent. Then one of these fingers divides 

 near its base and a third finger is formed, which grows out to be as 

 long as the other two ; or both the original fingers send out shoots 

 from their bases, so that there are four fingers. The proximal portion 

 of the scale is shortening all the time, and the space between the 

 pedicel and the bases of the fingers is widening. The number of 

 fingers may increase to seven or eight, and the proximal portion of the 

 scale become so short that the fingers are twice as long as the uncleft 

 portion of the scale. The whole line of specialisation may be well 

 illustrated by scales taken from a single wing of Gloveria arizonensis. 



Bodine notes that the Lachneids (with the Lacosomids* and 

 Saturniids) are included in Comstock's Frenulum-losers, and writing of 

 the antennas, states (Antennae of Lepidoptera, p. 43) that " the most 

 generalised antenna of this group belongs to the family Lacosomidae. 

 It bears a close resemblance to the antennae of the Bombycidae and the 

 Lasiocampidae. In all three families the pectinations are long and 

 slender, and arise from the ventral aspect of the segments. They are 

 abundantly supplied with hairs of the third type and have pits along 

 the dorsal aspect, especially near the apex of the pectinations. In the 

 Lacosomidae the pectinations are scaled, and there are fewer pits along 

 the dorsal aspect. A study of the antennas alone would lead to the 

 belief that the Bombycidae were more closely related to the Lacosomidae 

 than to the other Saturniina. In fact, there is such a wide difference 

 between the antennae of the first (Bombycidae) and those of the last 

 two families of the Saturniina (< 'itJieroniidae and Satiirniidae) that the 

 first family would not be placed in the same superfamily were the 

 classification based on these organs." 



The frenulum is altogether wanting in the Lachneid imago, the 

 much produced humeral angle of the hind-wings serving to keep the pair 

 of wings together, to almost the same extent that the frenulum does. 



Among other interesting points relating to the Lachneid 

 imagines is the marked sexual dimorphism (the females much exceed- 

 ing the males in size), which reaches its greatest extreme in the 



* Vide, anted, vol. i., p. 123. 



