MICRO-LEPIDOPTERA

Extract

This huge genus comprehends insects of great variety of size and structure, but unfortunately it has not yet been found practicable to subdivide it. It contains, no doubt, material for several genera, and for the convenience of the student, if for no other reason, its subdivision is the desideratum in microlepidopterology. The young student who finds a micro with the palpi simple or but scarcely at all thickened with scales beneath, the fore wings comparatively narrow, and the hind wings deeply excised beneath the tip, and is told that it is a Gelechia, may well be astonished when he finds a larger insect, with the hind wings not at all excised beneath the tip, and the palpi overarching the vertex, with a large brush beneath the second joint, which may even present some appearance of longitudinal division, and is told thatit,too, is a Gelechia.