end; and Thyatira also a naked one, but furnished with a number of conical tubercles throughout the whole length of the body. Those of Catocala are strongly fimbriated at the sides of the body; in Acosmetia there are only six ventral feet (fig. 108. 18. larva of A. fuscula); whilst in Plusia (fig. 108. 9.) and Euclidia, which have semi-geometrical larvæ, there are only two pairs of ventral feet; those of the last-named genus are quite vermiform in their appearance, and having the habit of twisting themselves about in all directions (fig. 108. 17. larva of Euclidia Mi.). That of Erastria has only ten feet (Hubn. Curt.).

M. Guénée, in his memoirs upon this family, in the sixth vol. of the Annal. Soc. Entomol. de France, 1837, arranges the species into the eighteen following tribes:- 1. Bombycoidi; 2. Pseudo-Bombycoidi; 3. Bryophagidi; 4. Nonagridi; 5. Leucanidi; 6. Noctuelidi; 7. Amphipyridi; 8. Miselidi; 9. Hadenidi; 10. Orthosidi; 11. Xylinidi; 12. Heliothidi; 13. Ctenoceridi; 14. Plusidi; 15. Catocalidi; 16. Ophiusidi; 17. Noctuoidi; 18. Noctuo-Phalanidi; in addition to which he has described another tribe, Noctuo-Bombycoidi, consisting of the genera Ceropacha, Cymatophora, Tethea, and Cosmia, the larvæ of all of which live amongst the leaves of trees, which they fasten together with silken threads.

The tenth family, GEOMETRIDE + Steph., is one of nearly equal extent with the Noctuidæ, from which it is distinguished by its general weakness of structure, slenderness of body, but more particularly by the remarkable peculiarities and mode of progression of the caterpillars, which has supplied the name of the family (fig. 109.

Fig. 108. 8. represents the under side of the abdomen of a specimen of Cosmia trapetzina, in order to show the two large pencils of hairs which are at times exserted and erected, and at other times lie close upon the body, to which allusion has already been made in preceding pages. (See also Knoch, Beitrage, vol. iii. pl.5. f. 6. ; Annales Soc. Ent. France, tom. i. part. 2.; Kirby and Spence, vol. iv. p. 59. ; and Curtis, 635 f. A*.)

+ BIBLIOGR. REFER. TO THE GEOMETRIDA.

Audouin. Obs. sur une Chenille du g. Dosithea, in Ann. Soc. Ent. France, 1834. Eversmann, in Bulletin Soc. Nat. Moscow, 1837.

Rambur, in Ann. Soc. Ent. de France, tom. i. part 3., and tom. ii.; and the general works on Lepidoptera above referred to.

3. Abraxas grossulariata). The head is of moderate size; the maxillæ short and weak, being nearly membranous; the labial palpi small and cylindrical; the antennæ variable, being strongly bipectinated in some males (fig. 109. 6. antenna of Himera pennaria ♂; 4. head of Ourapteryx sambucaria ♂; 5. part of its antenna; 7. joint of antenna of Hybernia defoliaria ♂ ). The wings are of large size, and various outlines, and are often extended horizontally (in a few species they are occasionally carried vertically). The thorax is never crested. The legs are slender, the anterior tibiæ being armed internally with a spur (fig. 109. 8.), and the posterior with two pairs of those appendages.

The caterpillars are called loopers, or geometricians, from the peculiar mode of their progression. They have only three pairs of pectoral, and one (the hindmost) pair of ventral prolegs, with a pair of anal feet; and hence, in walking, they first fix themselves firmly, by means of their anal and ventral feet; they then extend the body to its greatest length, when they put down their fore feet, drawing the hind part of the body as close after them as possible, so as to form an arch, like a pair of compasses, fixing their hind feet, and proceeding again as before. Their muscular power is very great, and hence their positions during repose are very striking. Fixing themselves by their anal feet alone, they extend their bodies in a straight line, holding it in that position for a great length of time. This, together with their obscure colours, and the warts which their body exhibits, renders it often quite difficult to distinguish them from twigs of the trees on which they feed (fig. 109. 11. young larva of Ourapteryx sambucaria in its stationary attitude; 10. ditto just hatched, showing them in various positions; 1. geometrical position

of the larva of Abraxas grossulariata; 2. pupa of ditto; 12. the larva of the Lilac Beauty, Pericallia syringaria, distinguished from all the other caterpillars in the family by the recurved horns upon the eighth segment of the body). Mr. Stephens describes the larvæ of some of the genera as possessing 12, and others 14 feet.*

If we except Campaa Margaritata (the larva of which has lateral appendages at the sides of the middle segments of the body, giving it the appearance of a greater number of prolegs than it really possesses), and the Cerura-like larvæ of Platypteryx (fig. 109. 13.), the figures given above represent the most marked variations in the appearance of the larvæ of this family, except such as have 12 or 14 feet, as already mentioned.

These caterpillars feed upon the leaves of various trees and plants, and have the instinct, when alarmed, of dropping down from the leaves, and suspending themselves by a thread, which enables them to remount when the danger is past. The chrysalides are either naked and suspended by the tail, or enclosed in a very slender cocoon, which is rarely subterranean, and oft-times placed amongst dry leaves, &c.

In the perfect state, these insects offer very little variation in their habits, flying sluggishly in the twilight, or when disturbed during the day, and quickly settling again amongst the foliage of woods and hedges. In their colours, they are much more beautifully ornamented than the Noctuidae; and many species have a broad wavy band across the fore wings, whence they have obtained the name of carpet moths: they rarely exceed a moderate size. In some species, the females are almost, or entirely, destitute of wings (fig. 109. 9. Hibernia defoliaria ). Some of these, as the Cheimatobia brumata, are exceedingly injurious to fruit trees, devouring the tender shoots and leaves in the spring (see Kollar's work on Noxious Insects); whilst Bupalus piniarius is occasionally exceedingly destructive in the pine forests of Germany. (Silbermann, Rev. Entomol. No. 9.)

The males of one small group (genus Lobophora Curtis) are singularly distinguished by their hind wings being furnished with a small membranous lobe, giving them the appearance of possessing an extra pair of wings.

M. Duponchel has described a singular Gynandromorphous individual of Angerona prunaria (in Ann. Soc. Ent. de France, 1835, pl.

* In the species figured by De Geer (Mém., tom. i. pl. 25. f. 1—7.), the larva has three pairs of ventral feet, the first and second of which are very minute.

1. f. 5.). In addition to the numerous memoirs upon various species of this family contained in the general works of Réaumur, Sepp, Admiral, Harris, De Geer, Lyonnet, &c., reference must also be made to M. Audouin's Memoir on Dosithea scutularia above referred to, and to a memoir by Ver Huell, on the anomalous structure of the hind pair of legs in this species, contained in the Tijdschrift voor Natuurlijke Geschiedenis, 11se deel. 3de stuk.

Of the relations of these insects but little can be said. The larger species, with feathered male antennæ, as Latreille long ago remarked, exhibit so strong a relation to some of the Bombycidæ, that it would be rash, looking at the imagines alone, to assert that the relation was not one of affinity. On the other hand, we have seen them nearly related to the Noctuidae. Mr. Curtis proposes to divide these insects into two families, characterised by the structure of the male antennæ ; but such a step would unnaturally break many strong relations, as pointed out by Mr. Stephens. (Illustr. iii. p. 143.) Platypteryx (fig. 109. 14. Pl. falcataria) constitutes a most anomalous group, which, in the imago state, seems to be one of the types of form of this family; but its larvæ (fig. 109. 13. larva of Pl. lacertula) are altogether distinct, and more nearly resemble those of Cerura; but this relation is so slight, that Latreille has evidently confounded a relation of analogy with one of affinity in uniting them into one tribe, Aposura.

The eleventh family, PYRALIDE, is one of moderate extent, and the species are of a small size, having the body slender and elongated; the antennæ simple, or but slightly ciliated in the males; the labrum and mandibles small (fig. 110. 6. these parts in Crambus (Lyndia) Cannarum Sav. Egypt); the labial palpi (fig. 110.8. labium of the same) often greatly elongated and porrected, but occasionally recurved, with the maxillary ones occasionally developed (fig. 110. 3. m. p. ; fig. 110. 4 ;—5. and 7. head and maxillæ of Cr. Cannarum); the maxillæ themselves are generally of moderate length (fig. 110. 7.), although in Hydrocampa very small, and in Aglossa nearly obsolete; the head (fig. 110. 3. head of Botys (Ismene) pelusia Sav. Egypt. sideways; 4. maxillæ, labium, and labial palpi of the same) is occa

* See Laspeyres, Verschl. zu g. Platypteryx, 4to. Berlin, 180?; and in Der Gesellsch. Naturf. Freund zu Berlin, n. Schrift, 4 vol.; and Lyonnet's Posth. Recherch.

sionally furnished with a pair of ocelli; the thorax is of moderate size, never crested; the wings are also of moderate size, and generally placed in a triangle during repose (whence Latreille's name of Deltoides given to the section composed of the typical group fig. 110. 1. Hypena proboscidalis); the anterior wings are generally slightly angulated at the tip; the legs are ordinarily very long, especially the fore pair, of which the coxæ are nearly as long as the tibia (as in Hydrocampa Potamogata, fig. 110. 9.), thus indicating the great activity of movement which these insects so frequently exhibit. In some species the fore legs of the males are singularly ornamented with fascicles of hairs capable of expansion, whence the species have received the name of fan-footed moths*; the anterior tarsi of the males of some of the species of Pyralis are obsolete. There is a considerable diversity, however, not only in the perfect insects, of which this family is composed, but also in the preparatory states; in general, the caterpillars are long and slightly hairy (fig. 110. 2.; larva of Hypena proboscidalis). They vary in the number of legs, having mostly only three, but sometimes four pairs of ventral feet (fig. 110. 11. larva of Hydrocampa lemnalis). They are never geometrical in their motion, nor radicivorous in their habits, nor are their bodies densely clothed with hairs; in all which respects they vary from the preceding and following groups; but it is to be admitted, that the limits of the family are not clearly defined; for instance, Latreille confines it to his genus Herminia, composed of the strongly rostrated species (Crambus barbatus, rostratus, &c.), whilst Stephens considerably increases its extent, and adds to it the genera Nola, Simaëthis, and some other anomalous genera, forming Latreille's first section of

As also in the Indian typical Hyblææ Fabr. See Esper, Monogr. on this g. in Der Naturforscher, st. 29.