195 
NOCTUID.E. 
The present family is a very natural one, corre- 
sponding to the section Phalana noctua of Linnaeus, 
and containing no fewer than about eight hundred 
European species, and four hundred British, besides 
exotics. The genera already established are very 
numerous, and in many cases founded in such mi- 
nute structural differences, that they cannot be re- 
cognised without great difficulty. The antennae are 
simpl^e and setiform, very rarely pectinated or cili- 
ated in the males; the body short and stout, th^ 
thorax being often crested ; the mouth is ■well deve- 
loped, the spiral tongue long, the palpi projecting, 
and in general having the terminal joint naked, at 
least at the tip. The wings are usually deflexed, 
or folded on each side of the body, when in a state 
of repose, but frequently they are horizontal, and 
partly expanded. The caterpillars are very diversi- 
fied, generally solitary, not residing in a web, and 
apparently in no case subcutaneous. For the most 
part they have sixteen feet. The pupa is never 
suspended, and is almost always buried in the 
earth. 
