LASIOCAMPIDAE. By Dr. K. Grunberg. 
391 
9 . Family: Lasiocampidae. 
About the scope of the family, their relative position, about the morphology of the lepidoptera and 
larvae, as well as the remarkable peculiarities of the metamorphosis and biology, we have already dwelt on 
at large in the introduction to the treatment of the palearctic Lasiocampidae (Vol. II, p. 147—149). It will 
therefore suffice to consider here the Indo-Australian Lasiocampidae from their purely faunistic point, and to 
cast a look at the character of the fauna as a whole by referring to their relationship to the contiguous districts 
of the fauna. We can here altogether forego a closer comparison with the Ethiopian fauna, for everything that 
might be adduced as being common to both faunas are the names of some species, such as Taragama, Trabala, 
Chilena, Lenodora. Tne relations, however, between the Eastern and palearctic fauna are naturally quite different. 
As points of contact manifested themselves at the palearctic Lasiocampidae with the Indian fauna, the con¬ 
formities and deviations between the two closely touching and converging faunas will have to be emphasised 
when we take the Indian representatives of the family into consideration. We must at once point out that 
at a further comparison we are only allowed to comprehend the fauna of South Asia and may do so per adventure 
with the inclusion of the Sunda Islands, which we denominated the Indian fauna; for within the whole Indo- 
Australian territory there must, according to our present knowledge, two strictly separated groups of fauna 
and form be distinguished. 
The closer points of contact between the Indian and Palearctic Lasioeampid fauna, which points are 
common to each other, are now exclusively put to the account of the former. We reckon to the Palearctic fauna 
a number of species from the long extended boundary district in which the two faunas touch each other which, 
however, from their principal diffusion and their whole character are all typical representatives of the Indian 
fauna. To them belong the best known and most frequent, therefore the most typical amongst the Indian 
Lasioeampid genera, Lebeda nobilis, Paralebeda plagifera, Suana concolor, Trabala vishnou, Estigena, pardalis, 
Taragama dorsalis, Metanastria hyrtaca, M. subpurpurea, Bhima undulosa. We can therefore cite a number 
of Indian species as occurring on the palearctic territory, but we cannot reverse the exemplification, for there 
is indeed no typical palearctic Lasioeampid species, the spread of which extends into the eastern district. In 
this sense we may with the Lasiocampidae speak of a strict division between palearctic and Eastern Fauna. 
Also the genera common to the two faunas, apart from the species above-named, are soon enumerated. The 
genera Taragama and Chilena represented in the Mediterranean district and Asia Minor by some species, are 
indigenous to the whole Ethiopian and Eastern countries. Of the typically palearctic genera, which are likewise 
indigenous to Central and Northern Europe, having representatives amongst the Indian species, we can only 
mention Malacosoma, Gastropacha and Trichiura, of which the former two genera are represented in India 
by 2 and the latter only by one species. With the genus Cosmotriche, which is likewise palearctic, the main 
point of the distributive district is doubtlessly situated in Southern Asia, where we must enumerate at least 
15 species which are confronted as purely palearctic species only by the C. potatoria indigenous to Europe and 
Northern Asia. The genus Arguda, likewise very rich in its ramifications in the Indian district, is replaced 
in the palearctic district by the closely allied genus Odonestis. For other palearctic genera, even if they are 
widely distributed and come up closely to the boundary of the Eastern district, we may look in vain there. 
We know no Lasiocampa nor Chondrostega in Southern Asia. 
The Lasioeampid forms described in upwards of 250 species in the palearctic fauna, we cannot confront 
with even 160 Indo-Australian species. Though at first sight this number may appear somewhat moderate 
for the total and large Indo-Australian district, we must firstly take into consideration that the forms described 
in the following pages are apportioned to as many species, while with the palearctic Lasiocampidae the number 
of sub-species considerably exceed the species. Let us only take into account such highly varying species as 
Lasiocampa quercus, Malasoroma neustria, Cosmotriche potatoria, Dendrolimus pini. Of such an intensive research 
of the whole district, such an exhaustive elaboration of the whole material going down to the minutest variations 
in the colouring, markings and formation of local races, which partly joins and separates the possible com¬ 
binations even quite schematically like Tutt is doing with the English species, we cannot, as a matter of fact, 
speak of the Indo-Australian Fauna. It is only Northern East India and Ceylon and mayhap yet the colonised 
stretches of the Australian continent which have been explored. With the Sunda Islands, the Moluccas, Philip¬ 
pines, New Guinea and the whole of Polynesia this is by far not yet the case at least with respect to the Hetero- 
cerea; and the great number of newly described species having come down to us from these districts within 
the last twenty years, and particularly from New Guinea, justifies our opinion that we may expect yet quite 
a considerable accession from there. With a more thorough elaboration of the faunistic material, an adequate 
increase of the habitats and species, the statements of aberrations and geographical races will go hand in hand, 
