Volume 3

The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma / edited by W.T. Blanford. Moths. Vols I-IV / by G.F. Hampson.

Date:
1892-1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma / edited by W.T. Blanford. Moths. Vols I-IV / by G.F. Hampson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    PEEFACE In the present volume the two remaining subfamilies of the Noctuidm, the Focillince and DeltoidincB, are described The latter consists of slenderly built, semidiurnal, grass-frequentinff forms which show far greater diversity of structure in both generic and secondary sexual characters than the other groups of the Noctmd(S. It exhibits a gradual development from forms with straight palpi fringed with hair above, such as Hypena, which is closely allied to the SarrothripirKs and to the ancestors of the Noctuidoe and Nolincs, through forms with oblique palpi, to a group possessing palpi of an extremelv carved sickle-shaped type: from this group arose the stouter built more typically Noctuiform and nocturnal FocillincB and QuadrijirKE. The EpicopiidcB, Uraniid(B, EpiplemidcB, and Geometrida belong to the group of families in which vein 5 of the fore wing arises from the middle of the discocellulars The first three are closely allied and might perhaps be regarded as subdivisions of one family, the UraniidcB, which is most nearly related to the Bombycid<s and Saturniidce, some early form of '^^^^'^^^ ^--^--^^ In the GeometridcE Mr. Meyrick^s excellent division into subfamilies has been followed, and his classification will almost certainly remain as the basis of any future work on the subject His definitions of the European genera also are tZt t ' extent for Indian forms, but least so in the BoarmttncB, which is far the most difficult subfamily to classify owing to the great diversity of structure that is found tariitioi^ \\ ^^ «f individual vaiiation. It will require a considerably extended studv embracing the forms of all the zoological regions before a really permanent classification can be arrived at ' The OrthostixincB and (EmchromincB contain the most primitive forms m the family; the former has vein 8 of the hmd wmg connected with the cell by a bar near the base ihl remams of one of the lost subcostals.^ From the Ortho H^^^^