LYMANTRIIDAE. General Topics. By Dr. A. Seitz. 
127 
7. Family: Lymantriidae. 
As to the general characterization of the family of the Lymantriidae we refer to Vol. II, p. 109 to 111, 
and Vol. X, p. 291 and 292. Regarding the name of the family we may add here that, after the denomination 
of ,,Liparidae u had been rather generally used till the end of the last century, it was then transformed into 
,, Lymantriidae' ‘, because the name of the genus ,,Liparis“ was replaced by ,,Lymantria“, whereby, according to 
the opinion of many an author, the denomination of a family changes automatically. But the name ,,Lymantria“ 
itself was differently conceived, the species Psilura monacha L. with entirely different imagines, larvae and 
pupae (with a projecting ovipositor, metallic pupa etc.) and Ocneria ( Liparis) dispar (with a woolly anus, a 
knobbed larva etc.) united with it, and entirely heterogeneous elements ( Pegella , Ocneria etc.) jumbled up 
with them. As the neuration does not offer very many possibilities for the distinction of the genera of 
Lymantriidae and the mostly very characteristic larvae were but little known, there prevailed for a long time 
great uncertainty in the system of the family. 
With regard to the characterization of the family, we may refer to the corresponding passages in Vol. II 
and X, as well as to the paragraph preceding the enumeration of the single forms belonging hereto; we only 
remind the reader of the entire absence of the proboscis in all the Lymantriidae, which however was wrongly 
considered as a difference from the Arctiidae, since also the Spilosominae frequently exhibit a very much stunted 
proboscis. Nevertheless this criterion is still to be used for distinctive purposes, because all those Arctiidae 
that by their neuration resemble the Lymantriidae — as for instance the Callimorphinae, Hypsinae — exhibit 
a well developed, mostly even long proboscis. The Lymantriidae correspond with them in the costal vein of 
the hinclwing anastomosing with the anterior wall of the cell, which is not the case in the other Arctiid groups. 
By reason of the imagines and larvae the total family is to be ranged after the Arctiidae. Hampson 
placed the family between the Pterothysanidae and the genus Cocytia (which owing to the resemblance with 
the American Sphingid genus Cocytius is now called Eucocytiadae), but this seems to us to be not very felicitous, 
although certain relations of all the 3 groups to the Arctiidae in the furthest sense are not unlikely; nevertheless 
their position behind the Pterothysanidae to which they are the most closely allied may be maintained. 
Already in dealing with the Lymantriidae in the Indian Fauna we had seen how heterogeneous the 
single parts are, of which the Lymantriidae of to-day are composed. Among the Anihelinae we met with gigantic 
forms (such as Chalepteryx collesi, Vol. X, pi. 46 e) with an expanse of more than 17 cm (in the $), in 
contrast with diminutive species almost of the size of microlepidoptera. Wingless $$ occur in some genera, 
but this fact is rather unimportant, since there are species (such as the palearctic Orgyia thyellina, Vol. II, 
p. 120) in which one generation exhibits almost exclusively wingless (stump-winged) whereas in the 
other generation nearly all of them have complete wings which are fully used in easy and frequent flights. In 
dividing the eggs of the same breed it was even proved that one part of them being bred in chests yielded 
only winged whilst the other part being bred in the open air yielded $$ with stumps of wings. 
The total number of Lymantriid forms known to this day amounts to about 2000. The former estimates 
have partly been surpassed by works published meanwhile, partly they had been incorrect from the beginning. 
Staudinger-Rebel's Catalogue hardly states 100 forms for the palearctic region, because the authors omitted 
large palearctic districts, such as Tibet, Korea, the palearctic parts of Japan. Kirby, ten years before, had 
stated the total number of species of all the ,,Liparidae u known to be only 900, and including all the secondary 
forms he enumerates hardly 1000, although many Geometrulae, Arctiidae etc. number among his ,, Liparidae “. 
Later on, in 1913, Rebel counts 1200 species. In Vol. II we enumerated about 300 species from the palearctic 
region, in Vol. X about 750 species from the Indo-Australian Fauna. From the American Region about 150 
species are known, which small number is particularly due to the great poorness of Lymantriidae in South 
America; in addition to them there are about 800 species from Ethiopian Africa. 
