Pull. 28. IX. 1929. 
SATURN I DAE. General Topics. By Dr. M. Draudt. 
713 
12. Family: Saturnidae. 
In conformity with the enormous number of Saturnidae occurring in America — about 750 forms being 
known today we are met with most varied shapes. We were hitherto accustomed to consider the Gerato- 
campidae or, as they are called today: Syssphingidae, as an independent family. H amp,son, according to his 
dividing principle, believed to have found a good means of division in the absence of the proboscis and tibia! 
spurs of the Saturnidae, whereas they are present in the Ceratocampidae. But we shall directly see that, 
considering our present knowledge of the abundance of forms, this is not sufficient, the boundaries becoming 
more and more effaced, so that one may ad lib. range the boundary-forms here or there. Since Packard found 
that the large Arsenura, Dysdaemonia , and their allies can neither be assigned to the genuine Saturnidae, as 
was customary, Jordan has closely investigated this group and, in meritorious works, comprised the 
insects as the superfamily of “Saturnioidea”, subordinating the various groups as families. We follow here his 
example, but in order to conform with the scheme of this work we comprise the whole as a family and, 
considering the evidently very great relationship, we subordinate the genuine Saturnidae (with the subordinate 
groups of the Attacinae and Saturniinae) and the Syssphingidae (with the 2 subordinate groups of the Arsenurinae 
and Syssphinginae ) as subfamilies, to which also in America the quite heterogeneous Oxytenidae and Gerco- 
pbanidae are attached as two more subfamilies. 
Jordan found the only incontestable mark of distinction between the Saturnidae and Syssphingidae 
to be a small parasternum in the mesosternit of the Saturnidae, whilst that of the Syssphingidae is large. 
Moreover there is a biological difference, the Saturnidae chiefly having larvae with fleshy warts or stellarly 
haired or spined knob-like warts and spinning a cocoon, whereas the Syssphingidae mostly exhibit long fleshy 
spines on the first and last segments only in their youth, being later generally bare, and the metamorphosis 
taking place in the soil without a cocoon. The latter, however, is not always the case, since the group of Telea- 
Tropaea the exterior of which is entirely like that of the Saturnidae spin cocoons, whereas, anatomically, they 
belong to the Syssphingidae, being another evidence for the obliteration of the boundary between the two 
subfamilies. 
As in all other faunal regions, so in America the Saturnidae also number among the most 
magnificent Moths often attaining quite a respectable size. The colouring and marking are likewise very similar 
on the whole to that of the well-known types from other parts of the globe, and we are everywhere met with 
parallel forms corresponding to the other faunae; among the Attacinae the numerous Rothschildia-iovms are 
particularly remarkable, representing rather true images of the Indian Attacus ; exactly as in other continents 
we find the green, long-tailed Tropaea corresponding to the Actias, whilst the Telea-Metosamia group is quite 
similar to some Antheraea. In the Volumes X (p. 497) and XIV (p. 31S) we have pointed out other parallel 
features. On the other hand, however, quite a number of remarkable representatives cannot be compared with 
any other groups; as for instance the Dirphia- group, the Hemileucidae, Hylesia, and among the Syssphingids 
the isolated Rescynthis, Arsenura, and Dysdaemonia, as well as the very strange species of Gopiopteryx. Nor 
are the Eacles, Citheronia, and Adelocephala comparable with any other forms. 
In the Introduction to the Indian Part, it has already been pointed out that the Saturnidae are undoubtedly 
a very old group adhering, with a certain rigidness, to the same design of marking, the eye-shaped central spot 
between 2 transverse stripes, which we also find in America in the very same way, especially well expressed in 
the genus Automeris in which the eye, being confined to the hindwing, often exhibits the most magnificent 
colouring. Besides the characters of marking, it is also in America the great distribution which makes us 
presume that the Saturnidae are extremely old. We find them from the north-western territory down to the 
VI 90 
