Simultaneously with the works above alluded to, Mr. Meyrick has given[[233]] a new classification of the Order. We allude, in other pages, to various points in Mr. Meyrick's classification, which is made to appear more revolutionary than it really is, in consequence of the radical changes in nomenclature combined with it.
As regards the various aggregates of families that are widely known in literature by the names Bombyces, Sphinges, Noctuae, Geometres, Pyrales, we need only remark that they are still regarded as to some extent natural. Their various limits being the subject of discussion and at present undecided, the groups are made to appear more uncertain than is really the case. The group that has to suffer the greatest changes is the old Bombyces. This series comprises the great majority of those moths that have diurnal habits. In it there were also included several groups of moths the larvae of which feed in trunks of trees or in the stems of plants, such as Cossidae, that will doubtless prove to have but little connection with the forms with which they were formerly associated. These groups with aberrant habits are those that give rise to the greatest difficulties of the taxonomist.
The following key to the families of Heterocera is taken from Sir G. F. Hampson's recent work, Fauna of British India—Moths.[[234]] It includes nearly all the families at present recognised among the larger Lepidoptera; certain families[[235]] not mentioned in this key are alluded to in our subsequent remarks on the families:—
Key to the Families of Moths[[236]]
N.B.—This table is not simply dichotomic; three contrasted categories are used in the case of the primary divisions, A, B, C, and the secondary divisions, I, II, III.
A. Fore wing with nervule 5 coming from the middle of the discocellulars, or nearer 6 than 4 (Categories I, II, III = 1-18).
I. Frenulum rudimentary. .......... Fam. 38. Epicopeiidae, see p. [418].
II. Frenulum absent (Categories 1-8).
1. Proboscis present, legs with spurs (Cat. 2-5).
2. Hind wing with nervule 8 remote from 7 (Cat. 3 and 4).