56 
INTHODUCTION. 
it may be something more — ^in the history of the 
lepidopterous tribes. 
These insects are best distinguished by the shape 
of the antennae, which are setaceous or diminishing 
in thickness from the base to the apex. They are 
generally long and flexible, and composed of oblong, 
subquadrate, or transTerse joints. In many cases 
they are toothed or serrated, and often emit a series 
of parallel branchlets on one or both sides, some- 
what resembling the teeth of a comb, whence they 
are said to be pectinated or bipectinated. These 
branchlets are sometimes themselres furnished Avith 
a secondary row, and hare two or three divergent 
spines at the tip, all of them placed with much 
regularity, and presenting a very beautiful appear- 
ance under a magnifying lens. They are generally 
more or less clothed with scales, which sometimes 
(as in Hypena proloscidalis) are veiy long and not 
unlike feathers. Whenever they deviate from a 
simply articulated structure, the antemiEB are more 
developed in the male than in the female ; if serrated 
in the former, for example, they are often simple in 
the latter ; and if those of the male are pectinated, 
his partner usually has them merely serrated, or at 
most imperfectly pectinated. In a group of small 
silver-spotted moths C Argyromiges ), which suspend 
their slender cocoon to the under side of a leaf by 
means of four threads at each end, exactly after the 
manner of a hammock, the antennae when in repose 
are bent backwards and lodged beneath the wings. 
The superficial scales are greatly more varied in 
