March, 1898] 
Grote: Classification of Lepidoptera. 
IT 
gap. The gradual stages of disintegration of the crossvein, such as I 
found in the Pierinae and Ny iqphalinae I have not so distinctly met with 
in the Emperor Moths. But the first step towards this stage is marked in 
the Saturnianae and has already everywhere attained full expression. It is 
the conversion of the crossvein between IV 2 and IVi into the physio¬ 
logical base of IV2, so that the crossvein proper seems to lie merely be¬ 
tween I\ 2 and IV 3 and we can classify the Saturnianae under the rubric : 
vein IV2 continuous or on a long stem with vein IVi. That the Satur¬ 
nianae have attained a high relative grade of specialization is seen by the 
loss of vein VIII on secondaries and the absorption of the radical veins 
on primaries. They have lagged behind the Attacinae in the first direc¬ 
tion : the suppression of the Media and its system. * One point more 
and I have done with this typical subfamily. In the Saturniades vein 
\III appears as a loop to VII on primaries. In Actias and Telea 
(proving the relationship ot the dissimilar appearing imagos) this vein 
VIII has an outer inferior spur or prolongation. Is this a trace of the 
vein VIII in its former position as a parallel vein ? Or is it a trace of an 
absorbed additional vein ? Or is it a sporadic, or extra-growth ? We 
notice it in Castnia. Its isolated appearance in two Saturnian genera 
makes it remarkable. Misled by Mr. Meyrick’s figures of Geometridse* 
I at one time thought the curved internal vein of Papilio might corre¬ 
spond to the internal vein figured by him in Venilia macularia . But it 
seems not, since the vein figured by Mr. Meyrick does not exist in the 
Geometrid form. 
Next, we come to the Hemileucinae, and here is a case of dis¬ 
puted classification, a matter I try here to uncover, with the help of the 
annexed diagrams of neuration obtained by photographic process. 
Both Professor Comstock and Dr. Dyar unite my Hemileucinae with my 
Automerinae under one - family,” which they call Hemileucidae after 
Packard. The origin of this notion may be traced back to Grote and 
Robinson, who, in 1866, established the group Hemileucini with the 
same contents.f A glance at the figure of the neuration of Hemileuca 
maia, which may also be found in Professor Comstock’s beautiful Man- 
ual, p. 342 (a book I regret to have only recently become acquainted 
with), shows that its condition is what we might expect from a more 
generalized Saturnian. On the secondaries vein VIII is retained, and 
the retention of this vein is a generalization and repeated everywhere. 
This affords no proof of the want of relationship between Hemileuca 
and Saturnta ; if it did , it would equally imply a want of consanguinity 
* Consult: Ill. Wochenschrift fur Entomologie, Band II, No. 38^ ~ 
t Ann. Lyc. Nat. Hist. Vol. VIII, 376, October, 186b. 
