340 
LEPIDOPTERA. 
almost to a point at the other; and they are destitute of 
the angular elevations which are found on the chrysalids 
of butterflies. 
These brief remarks, which are necessarily of a very 
general nature, and comprise hut a few of the principal 
differences observable in these insects, must suffice for the 
present occasion. 
Linnaeus divided the Moths into eight groups ; namely, 
Attaci^ Bombyces^ Noctuce^ Geometrce^ Tortrices^ Pyralides^ 
Tinem^ and Alucitce; and these (with the exception of the 
Attaci^ which are to he divided between the Bomhyces and 
Noctiice) have been recognized as well-marked groups, and 
have been adopted by some of the best entomologists * who 
succeeded him. 
1. Spinners. {Bomhyces.) 
The Bombyces, so called from Bomhyx., the ancient name 
of the silk-worm, are mostly thick-bodied moths, with anten- 
1133 in the greater number feathered or pectinated, at least 
in the males, the tongue and feelers very short or entirely 
wanting, the thorax woolly, but not crested, or very rarely, 
and the fore legs often very hairy. Their caterpillars have 
sixteen legs, are generally spinners, and, with few excep¬ 
tions, make cocoons within which they are transformed. 
This tribe has been subdivided into a number of lesser 
groups or families ; but naturalists are not at all agreed upon 
the manner in which these should be arranged. We might 
o o 
place at the head of the tribe those large moths, whose 
Sphinx-like caterpillars are naked and warty, and which, 
in the winged state, are ornamented with eye-like spots 
like the SmerintJii; or we might place first in the series 
the moths whose caterpillars are wood-eaters, with the habits 
* It is hardly necessary to say that among these are Denis and Schiffermuller, 
the authors of the celebrated Vienna Catalogue, besides Latreille, Leach, Ste¬ 
phens, and others, whose classifications of the Moths, how much soever varied, 
enlarged, or improved, are essentially based on the arrangement proposed by 
Linnseus. 
