1 
Introductory. 
As more minutely stated in the introduction to the Agaristidae (p. 2), and since there is only an incidental 
and secondary deviation to be seen in the claviform antennae of the Agaristids (in opposition to the non-claviform 
antennae of the Noctuids), a closer connection of these two groups has been brought about. We behold in their 
unification under the name of Noctuiformes the expression of a natural homogeneousness, quite as similar as 
the unification of certain families into primary groups (Acraeae, Heliconiae and Nymphalidae into Acraeo- 
morphae; Satyriclae, Morphidae, Brassolidae into Satyromorphae etc.), an indication of a scientifically founded 
relationship. In contrast to this the question, to which of these divisional parts is to be attributed the value 
of a separation of families, and to which that of a separation of sub-families, seems to us to be of minor 
significance than that in which place the line of demarcation between Agaristids and Noctuids is to be put. 
A separation from the Noctuids seems not to be unnatural, if the ancient conception of the group of 
Agaristids is considered, in so far as the strict character of a split into two families, having the same value, as 
for instance that between Geometrids and Sphingids or Pyralids etc., is to be applied to them. We have 
therefore also here remained true to the ancient conception to be found in the treatise of the Indian Agaristids 
by K. Jordan (February 1912) which appeared quite simultaneously with Strand’s Catalogue. 
As to the American Agaristids, a glance on plate 1 is of convincing proof that they are considerably 
inferior to the Indo-Australian and Ethiopian species as to size and magnificence. We are vainly looking for 
a substitute in America for the marvellous Agarista in Australia and Eusemia in India as well as for the Xantho- 
spilopteryx in Africa. The western representatives of this group are distinguished by a bright, but more twofold 
colouring, though sometimes interspersed with minute metallic traces. Black with yellow or white spots, but 
rarely with metallic transfusion, such is the type of colours in which nearly all the American Agaristidae agree. 
As we have seen in Australia in the Phalaenoides (Vol. 11, t. 29) depredators to the vine, we likewise 
find in America some species such as Eudryas unio, E. grata, the species of the genus Alypia, limited either 
wholly or partly to the vine as food-plant. The few larvae, too, which we know from the genera Eusemia, 
Scrobigera etc., either feed on Ampelideae or such plants as the vine-larvae are partial to, as for instance Oeno- 
thereae. Thus, for instance, Comocrus behri lives on Loranthus, Scrobig. proxima and Ophthalmis milete on 
Cissus, Phalaenoides tristifica on Epilobium and Oenothera, which otherwise are infested by Spliingid larvae 
and their congeners, and even the Aganshz-larva itself was found on the vine, so that we may assume the family 
of plants of the Ampelideae to be the most natural food-plant for the Agaristid larvae. 
On the other hand we find among the Xoctuidae only quite exceptionally lovers of the vine, what is the 
more wonderful for we know the multitudinous host of the Noctuids to be devotees to well-nigh every plant 
we know. Some Noctuids are polyphagous, but the majority of them contrariwise very squeamish and frequently 
so devoted to but one species of plants, that even the closest allies of the food-plant cannot be substituted 
for them. We often find the Noctuid-larva an exact prototype of the feeding herb; the European Cucullia 
artemisiae precisely represents an Artemisia-twig studded with minute knobs. Cue. verbasci-\ arvae only take 
to Verbascum, while those of Cue. scrophulariae only are fond of Scropliularia and not vice-versa. On a 
comparison of the Noctuid fauna of the Ancient World with that of America, we get an impression that 
on both hemispheres the places in the household of Nature occupied by the Noctuids are also possessed by the 
parallel forms of this family. Radclifee Grote has made a special research between the relations of the pale- 
arctic to the American Noctuid fauna and has ascertained that while among the Sphingidae there are only 
2 and among the Bombyces only very few (partly smuggled in) species common to Europe and America, the 
Noctuids contain many species partly common to both hemispheres and partly represented by geographical 
parallel forms. 
