24 



INTRODUCTION. 



plicated, and often obscure, and the reference to the perfect insect does not, in many- 

 cases, clearly illustrate the series. I shall therefore, at present, attempt no more than 

 a preliminary enumeration of the most prominent types of form in the Javanese collec- 

 tion , illustrating them by a comparison with those families in the Vienna Catalogue 

 which I have been enabled to determine with accuracy. But the whole, as above 

 stated, is merely an imperfect preparatory outline ; and in the enumeration of the 

 groups, no arrangement according to natural succession is attempted. My object 

 is to point out the prominent forms, with a view to their relative disposal, in the course 

 of the work. I trust, however, when the groups shall have been analyzed in detail, 

 to be enabled, in most cases, to point out clearly the typical forms, from a com- 

 parison of the metamorphosis with the perfect insect ; and to dispose the stirpes 

 in a continued series returning into itself. 



The first form indicating one of the stirpes of the tribe Bombycide, I have deno- 

 minated provisionally, after one of the families to be mentioned in the sequel, Fasci- 

 culata. I shall not attempt, in this place, a detailed description of its various modi- 

 fications ; this will follow more properly in the course of the work. Generally the 

 larva is covered closely with silky hairs, arranged in fascicles or tufts, often of unequal 

 length on different parts of the body, and always abruptly terminated. In some cases 

 these tufts are beautifully variegated in colour. This stirps is naturally subdivided 

 into two groups, one of which is exemplified in the genus Laria of Schrank {Liparis 

 and Orgy a of Ochsenheimer), the other in that of Arctia of Schrank, Eyprepia 

 of Ochsenheimer. But this must be understood with some modification as to species. 

 The families D, E, F, G, and H, of the Wiener Verzeichnis belong to this stirps. 

 The family E more particularly corresponds with the genus Arctia : the designation 

 according to the larva is Ursine (p. 52) Baerenraupen (hence the name arctia?') : 

 " Larva tuberculis in quolibet annulo decern, qua? plerumque pilis longis densisque 

 obtecta sunt." Fam. G illustrates the genus Laria : larva? Fasciculate (p. 54) Biir- 

 stenraupen. " Larva fasciculis erectis scopiformibus nonnullisque insuper tubercidis 

 pilisque brevioribus armata." This is more especially typical of the stirps. 



Another stirps of the Bombycidas has a larva, which may with propriety be deno- 

 minated Verticillata. It consists of two principal divisions. In the first the typical genus 

 is Saturnia of Schrank, Ochsenh., &c. Phalama Attacus, Linn. : in the second the 

 genus Apoda of Haworth. The first comprises the Fam. B, larvae verticillata', and pro- 

 bably also the Fam. C, larva? tuberoses of W. V., p. 49 and 50. Larva in singulis anmdis 

 verrucis sex, pilis stellalim diver gentibus. Metamorphosis a terra remote, in folli- 

 culo pyriformi durissimo. The second comprises the Fam. U., W. V., p. 65. Larva- 

 pedibus baud conspicuis (Apoda Haw.) : in Europaeis limaciformibus, in Javanis 

 spinis rigidis praeditse, quae iterum spinulis verticillatis acutissimis instructs; sunt. 



Metamor- 



