MEGALOPYGIDAE; PSYCHARIUM. Introduction by W. Horr. 
445 
16. Family: Megalopygidae. 
This particularly American family is only represented in Africa by the genus Somabrachys Kirby which 
occurs in the Mediterranean northern regions of that continent and was therefore dealt with in Vol. II (p. 335 
to 336, pi. 50) of this work. However, since the publication of the said volume many new species have been 
added to the genus, the number of which amounts now to almost thirty; but later on they were reduced again 
to but three species ( aegrota Klg., infuscata Klg., chretieni Obth.), because they alone could be safely distinguished 
on a morphological basis. One of the best marks of distinction is the position of the first median vein (R 1, 
vein 6) on the forewing, having its base in aegrota above the cell-media, in infuscata below the cell-media, 
whereas in chretieni it represents the prolongation of the cell-media. (Cf. Dr. K. Jordan in Novit. Zoolog. 23 
p. 350—358, 1916.) 
Recent investigations have proved the other species that had been described as African Megalopygidae 
not to be maintainable in the position assigned to them. They are insects the figures of which, in opposition 
to their authors, already distinctly characterized them as Psychidae or Cossidae. In the following lines we deal 
with two species which we can by no means distinguish at first sight as non-Megalopygidae, but only by means 
of a precise morphological comparison. Both the species are Phaudinae, a subordinate family of the Zygaenidae 
which are very common in Africa. 
1. Genus: Psycliarium H.-Schdff. 
Herrich-Schaffer has not assigned any position to the only species established by him. Aurivillius 
(1894) placed it to the Megalopygidae, Hampson (1901) temporarily to the Arctiidae, Dyar dk Strand (1913) 
to the Megalopygidae, Janse (1917) also to the latter, Strand (1919) to the Arctiidae, and Jordan (1928) to the 
Zygaenidae. It was only the latter author, however, who produced well-founded proofs for his statement, and 
we can hardly question his arguments which are as follows: frons of Psycharium as broad as that of Anomoeotes 
(Zyg.), broader than the eye and not narrower, as in the Megalopygidae ; female antenna at the base flattened 
and broader than high, instead of laterally compressed as in the Megalopygidae, and each segment ventrally 
curved apicad, the angles projecting distad; the chaetosema, which is small and lateral in the Megalopygidae, 
is in Psycharium a belt from one side to the other, similar though not identical with Anomoetes ; the mesonotum 
is in front in the middle compressed as in the Zygaenidae, whereas in the Megalopygidae it is convex with a 
depression on each side (Nov. Zool. 34, p. 135—136, 1928). — These details prove the position of Psycharium 
to be near Anomoeotes, though they do not show a distinct separation of the Zygaenidae from the Megalopygidae 
for instance with regard to the chaetosema which, according to the same author (1. c.), may be entirely absent 
in the Zygaenidae (Pompostolinae ) or gradually developed from a small roundish spot with radiate bristles to 
a completely scaled belt with short bristles. With respect to the veins there may occur a conformity of the two 
families in certain species, which is hardly to be explained as being casual, for instance between Psycharium 
and Vescoa (an American Megalopygida) ; the American species lack the bifurcation of the cell-media, whereas 
in Somabrachys it is present. This is not the place to deal with all these questions more exhaustively, particularly 
since many biological details are still to be investigated. 
P. pellucens H.-Schdff. (79 d) is a blackish hyaline species with narrow wings which are strewn with pelluccns. 
blackish, short, bristly hairs. The forewing shows a rudimentary marking of black and white hairs: a black 
