1188 
THYRIS. By M. Gaede. 
maculata. 
hujubris. 
species) we chiefly owe to the kind assistance of the owner of the great Tring Collection from which Dr. Jordan 
had the great kindness to get coloured photos made of the types and to lend us double specimens for being 
figured. We therefore beg to express here our special thanks to Lord Rothschild and Dr. Jordan for enabling 
us to provide more than 70 figures which could otherwise not have been procured. A further part of models 
for our plates we owe to the collaboration of Prof. Dr. M. Hering who got types painted in the Berlin Zoological 
Museum and supplied us with double specimens which were copied, an essential furtherance for the illustration 
of this difficult family. 
In looking for the junction of the Thyrididae on the pedigree of the Pyralidae, Hampson seems to 
have been correct in ranging them after the Chrysauginae. Only in the Chrysauginae do we find again the enor¬ 
mous variety of shapes of the Thyrididae , the uncommonly clumsy and bulky Neophrida and Idnea, beside the 
typically Pyralid-like slender Bonchis and the Alpheias exhibiting almost the exact shape of Crambus. We 
find the almost just as varied distortion and twists of the wings in the Zanclodes, Itambe. Acropteryx, Rucuma, 
Oryctopleura and many others, where the tips and dents of the wing-margins are often bent over the surface 
in the resting imago which, owing to peculiar bands and folds, is forced to keep its wings in a most strange 
way. Where we notice vesicular humps at the base of the costal margin in Risama picta and Vadata niacro- 
pterana, the Chrysauginae Cadadupa show lobular pads, the <$<$ of Rucuma and Casuaria incumbent bags, the 
BS of Azamora hollowed cavities. The frequent inclination to hyaline spots exhibited by Thyris, Glanycu-s , 
Dysodia. Risama , Rhodoneura. Draconia etc. recurs in the (Chrysauginae) Idnea , Itambe, and in their begin¬ 
nings as tingy spots in many other genera, while the monstrous development of the palpi of so many Chrysau¬ 
ginae occurs in the Thyrididae only in very slight beginnings, as for instance in Hexeris. Herdonia and Pycno- 
somia angulata. 
If Meyrick considers the Thyrididae to be an older main branch of the Pyralid tribe, his opinion is 
contrasted by the great differentiation mentioned just now. All the real Pyralid groups, excepting the Chry¬ 
sauginae , exhibit a much greater consistency, especially also in shape, than the Thyrididae do, if we regard 
each of these branches separately, — the Myelobiinae, Crambinae, Hydrocambinae , Pioninae etc. The differen¬ 
tiation of the Thyrididae among themselves seems to be due to their phylogenetically inferior age. .That they 
likewise descended from a very old root we have regarded as a fact above and concluded from its worldwide 
distribution. 
Regarding the distribution of the Thyrididae over the earth we refer our readers to Vol. X, p. 743. 
Here we only wish to point out the remarkable scarcity of the nearctic regions in contrast with the neotropical 
regions where also the largest Thyrididae hitherto known occur, i. e. the Draconia and Belonoptera. Only for 
the sake of curiosity do we call our readers attention to the strange consistency of habitus between the brown 
Draconia mirabilis and the Geometrid Macrotes netrix Cr. (Vol. VIII, pi. 1 a). Marginal tips and a large ir¬ 
regular distal vitreous spot might be connected with this habit in the Draconia which, according to Cramer’s 
statements behaves in repose like a Lasiocampa quercifolia , the hindwing projecting over the forewing like a 
roof, so that the insect looks like a bundle of withered leaves. Such an explanation, however, will hardly prove 
correct in the Oenochromine, since it holds its wings raised like those of the Rhopalocera. 
1. Genus : Thyris Lasp. 
This rather small genus has been largely dealt with in Vol. II, p. 371. The 5 species known are distri¬ 
buted over the Old World (3 species) and the Neiv World (2 species), where they live in a temperate climate, 
confined to the northern hemisphere. No species are known from the Indo-Australian and South American 
regions. Type: fenestrella Scop, from Europe. 
Th. maculata Harris (= perspicua IT At.) (173 a). Body dark bronze brown, the end of the patagia rusty 
brown. Wings blackish. Forewing with 3 dull reddish yellow spots at the costal margin. A circular hyaline 
spot at the cross-vein, from which a feeble reddish yellow line extends inwards to the inner margin. Submarginal 
line of reddish yellow dots vertical above the anal angle, slightly inserted behind the cell, double at the inner 
margin, sometimes there is yet a dot between this line and the cell. Median band of hindwing composed of 
a double spot, with numerous reddish yellow spots scattered behind it. 15 mm. United States. — The larva 
was described by Dyar only in 1924; it is of a stout and square build, light orange with round black tubercles 
with a few hairs. Head orange red. neck-shield large, orange edged with black, anal plate black. On Clematis 
in the turned over edge of a leaf. 
Th. lugubris Bsd. (173 a) is somewhat less dark than maculata. Black. Thorax with white lateral spots, 
abdomen with a few white dorsal spots. Forewing with many white dots at the costal margin, median band 
composed of 2 white spots. Behind them a larger one and 3 smaller ones. Hindwing with a broader median 
band. A few dots before the margin. 18 mm. United States. 
