48 
ACIDALIASTIS. By L. B. Prout. 
the antemedian at ^ 3 , the postmedian from % costa, slightly dentate, at both folds incurved, continued on the 
hindwing. Ziiluland (type) and Portuguese East Africa. 
micra. A. micra Hmpsn. (= vinnularia Bhl.) (5 b) is recognizable by its very small size, straighter lines and 
dissiniUis. distinct cell-dot. Aden (type) and Socotra. — dissimilis Warr. (= desertoria Rhl.) (5 c) is less small, forewing 
safurafa. more brownish, the cell-dot generally larger. Sudan, the Sahara, Egypt and Sinai. — ab. saturata Eothsch., 
founded on a from Asben, has the fore wing much darker (“greyish chocolate-brown”), with thick white 
antemedian and siibterminal lines. 
B. h i n d t i b i a swollen, with 4 s p u r s. 
nuhhrun- A. subbrunnesccns Prout has the forewing more sand-colour, the cell-dot wanting, the lines more 
uescenf^. oblique than the distal margin, generally weak. Somaliland (type) and Rharis. 
hicurvifera. A. bicurvifeta Prout (5 d). Larger than subhrunnescens (21 mm), with costal margin of forewing more 
rounded, the two principal lines more curved anteriorly, the pectinations of the $ antenna rather longer. 
Transvaal (type) and White Nile. 
curviiinea. A. curvilinca Prout (4 h). o sfill unknown, but its apparently close relationship to hicurvifera allows 
of its being placed here. Eorevdng bright green, not brown, in the type form with only the outer line, which 
mixta, is fine, strongly curved, sometimes faint. Transvaal; ? Kenya Colony. — mixta form. n. (? sp. cliv.) has the 
costalmargin broadly light-brown, the green ground-colour paler, a proximal white line as distinct as the distal, 
still more oblique, reaching the hindmargin quite hear the base. Woodbush Village, Transvaal, April 1915 
(C. J. Swierstr^A' type ? in coll. Prout. Suggests a possibility that hicurvifera is only a form of the same 
variable species. 
3. Subfamily: Sterrhinae. 
The name Acidaliinae, employed in our Fauna Palaearctica volume, is untenable for the reason noted 
under the genus Scopula (infra); that of Sterrhinae is therefore substituted, following Meyrick and Warren. 
A moderately long summary of the characters and classification of the subfamily has been given in 
Vol. 4, pp. 34, 35. It is generally best recognizable by the venation. An “areole”, single or double, is almost 
invariably developed in the forewing, such as otherwise only occurs in the Larentiinae or very exceptionally 
in the Geometrinae. From the Geometrinae, the Sterrhinae are distinguished absolutely by the complete 
development of the 2 nd radial of the hindwing as well as by the course of the costal vein of the same. This 
latter is nearly always very characteristic in the Sterrhinae, anastomosing with the cell at a point near the 
base, thence rapidly diverging. There are, however, a few genera, or even individual species (see Sterrha 
liUiputaria Warr.), in which the anastomosis is greatly prolonged, exactly as in the Larentiinae, in which 
subfamily the point-anastomosis is never found. In these few difficult cases the correct location can generally 
be found from other characters - - the smooth face, generally narrower wings, longer cells, greater development 
of the 1st discocellular (tract between 5th subcostal and 1st radial) of the forewing and frequent specialis¬ 
ations of the S hindleg, not rarely also the loss of one or more spurs on that of the $. Only in the Asthena 
group is there any real difficulty, and this, for the sake of a simple taxonomy, is at present assigned to the 
Larentiinae. 
The Sterrhinae, which comprise already well over two thousand known species, are relatively not 
particularly numerous in the African Region and produce there almost no special endemic developments. 
The interesting Cosymhia-Anisodes group is very poorly represented; and with the exception of the beautiful 
Ptochophyle and Ghrysocraspeda and a few striking representatives of Somatina and Prohlepsis, the African 
Sterrhinae give us little excepting small and obscure species belonging to the two huge genera Scopula and 
Sterrha. In these, on account both of their unattractiveness to the average collector and their difficulty to 
the systeniatist, there must be still an enormous number of species awaiting discovery or differentiation. 
