Annals of the Transvaal Museum 
150 
Rhodesia, the last yielding several new and peculiar forms. I have had access 
to nearly all the available specimens in our local Museums and private col- 
lections; among the latter I would mention those of Messrs E. E. Platt, 
E. L. Clark and Father J. A. O’Neil. 
So far as my knowledge of the moths goes, the distribution of the Noto- 
dontidae in S. Africa is interesting inasmuch as scarcely any species peculiar 
to the Cape Province have come under my notice. This does not obtain with 
the Lymantriadae , of which certain genera were rather well represented in that 
region. Although it is by no means so rich in Heterocera as the Eastern region, 
I cannot help thinking, that a more systematic survey would show more 
N otodontidae in the Cape Province than we know of at present. 
It is not unlikely that some of the insects herein described as new species 
have been previously described from Central Africa, because the references at 
my disposal do not include all the literature of the N otodontidae of Africa; 
however, every possible precaution has been taken to guard against duplica- 
tion. 
The references given are those which I have used, but all synonyms have 
not necessarily been given for each case. 
The measurement of the span has been arrived at by doubling that taken 
from the middle of the thorax to the tip of the fore wing. 
Unless stated to the contrary, the point at which an inner vein branches 
away from an outer is a proportion of the length of the outer, as measured 
from the cell to the margin 
In many instances the interrelationship of the various genera has not been 
very clear to me. There are gaps which may yet be filled by new forms or which 
were once occupied by some now extinct. Packard has defined with more or less 
success seven sub-families. For my own part I recognise eight groups, but it is 
questionable whether these have the value of sub-families. 
Group I. 
This group comprises the genera Scalmicauda and Ichthyura, of which the 
members are characterised by their hairy eyes, and their tendency to develop 
tufts on the thorax, peculiarities of no other Notodontids. Ichthyura is the more 
specialised genus, but I hardly think that it originated from Scalmicauda. 
Group II. 
The two genera Pectinophora and Lophopteryx compose this group of moths 
peculiar for the tufted inner margin of the fore wing. I take this group to have 
originated from an ancestral form common to it and to Antheua as its structure 
is rather more primitive than that of Antheua although similar. 
Group III. 
This group I also regard as having originated from the root common to 
groups II and V, although no trace can be found elsewhere of the spur on the 
fork of vein 1 b of fore wing, peculiar to this group and possibly a rather 
primitive character. This Cerura group has three genera: Pseudorethona, 
Cerura and Pararethona ; the spur on 1 h, the scaling of the legs and the branches 
of the antennae all indicate close affinity. Cerura has lost the median spur on 
the hind legs, and for this reason is considered specialised; but, on the other 
hand, it has a bar between the upper median, and vein 8 of the hind wing; this 
bar is missing in Pseudorethona. Pararethona may ultimately prove to be con- 
nected in one way or another with Chadisra but it certainly also exhibits 
relationship to the two other genera of the group. 
