240 
DASYUPvIS. By L. B. Prout. 
holombra. 
octans. 
he dor i. 
austrina. 
anceps. 
of South America, just those regions where the three previous subfamilies are scarcely or not at all in evidence- 
It has been pointed out in the introductions to Vol. 4 and Vol. 16 that it is on the whole characteristic, at 
least in its more typical forms, of high altitudes or latitudes, but many of the large genera or groups — for 
instance, those typified by Lobophora and by Chloroclystis — are equally at home in the tropics and produce 
in the Indo-Australian Region many extremely interesting and characteristic developments. 
Of well over 250 genera hitherto recognized in the subfamily, about two-thirds belong, exclusively or 
in part, to this region; of a considerable percentage of them little is as yet known and one is tempted to repeat 
what was said of the Geometrinae in Vol. 4, that little more can at present be attempted than to give an illu¬ 
strated catalogue of them. 
Very roughly, the subfamily seems to fall into two groups, the one with protuberant or rough (often 
tufted, sometimes shaggy) face, the other with smooth or flattened face, generally also with smooth scaling 
and delicate build. The latter, as was pointed out in Vol. 16, p. 48 and 83, at times approximates to the 
Sterrhinae, but it is not yet certain how far this is due to close affinity, how far to convergence. In any 
case the two subfamilies have definitely a good deal in common; and if there had been any justification (which 
I do not grant) for Turner's recent proposal to create some separate families among the Geometridae, he 
could have obtained less unsatisfactory results by treating the Sterrhinae and Larentiinae as constituting one 
family and the Oenoclirominae and Geometrinae as another. 
The principal characteristics of the Larentiniae are the almost constant anastomosis of the costal vein 
of the hindwing with the subcostal for a considerable distance (a condition which only occurs sporadically 
in the other subfamilies); the presence of all the 12 veins of the forewing, with the costal almost always free, 
the subcostals almost always anastomosing so as to form one or two areoles; and the almost complete loss of 
the gnatlios of the $ genitalia (characteristic also of a section of the Sterrhinae). Tongue almost always developed, 
frenulum generally. Hindleg generally fully spurred. Cells usually shortened, even as compared with the 
Sterrhinae, 1st radial of the hindwing generally, of the forewing very frequently, stalked with last subcostal, 
discocellulars of hindwing often oblique, with 2nd. radial arising before the middle, in certain groups biangulate, 
with 2nd. radial arising behind the middle (or at least behind the cell-fold). For a strange anomaly in the fore¬ 
wing venation see Antimimistis. 
1. Genus: Dasyiiris Guen . 
This genus and the four which follow are distinguished from the rest of the Indo-Australian Larentiinae 
by their more hairy or even shaggy vestiture. Breast and coxae densely hairy; face and palpus more or less 
hairy. Antenna of the $ ciliated. Forewing with double areole. Hindwing with discocellulars not biangulate. 
Belongs chiefly to New Zealand, with a few species in Australia, one in Hawaii. The Holarctic polata Dap. 
group (see Vol. 4, p. 234) is also referred to this genus. 
D. holombra Meyr. (24 b). A rather large species, of a dark colour, the hindwing almost unicolorous, 
the forewing with the median band further darkened, except its central part. Hawaiian Islands. Maui, at 
5000 feet. 
D. octans Huds. (24 a). Smaller than austrina and with much narrower and more strongly dentate 
median band; dark lines on the underside much heavier than in that, outer margin of median band 
less angled. Discovered near Lake Manapouri, Hunter Mountains, New Zealand, at 3500 to 4000 feet. It 
flies over an outcrop of lichen-covered rocks on a sunny slope (Clarke). 
B. hectori Butl. (24 f). The true hectori is a fine large species and cannot, I think, be confounded with 
any other. It seems to be rare and the earlier records, as well as Hudson’s in 1928, confuse with it the following. 
Butler calls it a high mountain form and difficult to catch. I have it from Macetown. This and the next 
three Dasyuris have the rj antenna fusiform (sect. Stathmonyma Meyr.). 
D. austrina Philpott (- hectori Meyr., part.) (24 b). Less large than hectori , forewing otherwise similar, 
hindwing with the postmedian much less irregular, etc., forewing beneath with more continuous (whitish) 
subterminal, both wings with the dark lines much more slender. New Zealand: Bold Peak; Lake Wakatipu 
(loc. typ.); summit of Ben Lomond, 5700 feet (perhaps now extinct); Mount Cook: probably also The Hump, 
Waiau (Philpott), a slightly different form. 
B. anceps Butl. (24 b). Hindwing and underside ochreous, the underside unmarked, or only very 
weakly marked, as far as the cell-dots, postmedian fine or moderate, more or less angled in cellule 3, an inter¬ 
rupted or macular blackish subterminal shade and narrow, irregular terminal one. New Zealand, distributed, 
4000 feet and upward. Meyrick calls it “constant”, which is approximately correct. — ab. grisescens nov.. 
