Contributions To The Natural History Of The Lepidoptera Of North America Vol 1

Author : William Barnes
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781332116751
Total Pages : 390 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (167 download)

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Download or read book Contributions to the Natural History of the Lepidoptera of North America, Vol. 1 written by William Barnes and published by . This book was released on 2015-08-04 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Contributions to the Natural History of the Lepidoptera of North America, Vol. 1: Revision of the Cossidae of North America Since Neumoegen and Dyar issued their preliminary revision of the Bombycidae north of Mexico (Jour. N. Y. Ent. Soc. II, p. 160, 1894) no attempt at a classification of the Cossidae of North America has been made. Our attention was first called to the matter when we endeavored to place in their proper genus several new species which had come into our possession and found that the key to the genera given in the above mentioned work was not very practical. A further examination of more material proved conclusively that the point of difference on which the separation of the two main groups was based was an exceedingly variable quantity and of no value in separating subfamilies. We refer to the presence or absence of a cross-vein between subcostal and radius (veins 7 and 8) of secondaries; this has been used by Dyar to separate the two subfamilies Zcuzerinae and Cossinae from the Hypoptinae. As a matter of fact in a long series of bertholdi Grt. examined, about half the specimens showed no trace of the cross-vein, in the other half the vein was very distinctly present, and in one specimen it was present on one wing and not on the other. The same is true of several other species, e.g. nanus Strkr., marga B. McD., etc. In the subfamily Zeuacrinae the presence or absence of this vein appears to be a constant feature and can, we consider, be safely used for generic purposes: in Cossus itself (type C. cossus L.) the vein is not present and even in Acossus Dyar we have met with a few cases where it was wanting. The synopsis of Cossid genera given by Dyar in Schaus' paper on new S. American moths (Proc. of Nat. Mus. XXIX, p. 339, 1906) has in our opinion several grave disadvantages in that secondary sexual characters are largely used for separation purposes, and the error of the previous paper to a great extent repeated, features which Dr. Dyar himself has hoped that we should eliminate. An attempt has therefore been made in the present paper, firstly, to base the Cossid genera on some constant feature of structure and venation and, secondly, to group the various N. American species under their proper genera. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.