Geographical Distribution of the Genus Cosniophila. 309 XXX. — On the Geographical Distribution of the Genus Cosmophila, a Noctuid of the Family Gonopterida?. By Colonel C. JSwinhoe, M.A., K.L.S., &c. [Plates IX. & X.] Family Gonopteridze. Genus Cosmophila, Boisd. Faun. Eiit. Madagascar, p. 94 (1833). Type, xanthindyma, Boisd. I. c. A very interesting genus, well worth careful investigation. Heretofore, on account of the similarity of pattern, authors have put all the different forms from America to Australia, regardless of the localities, mostly under the American form erosa', in ' Moths of India/ ii. p. 411 (1894), Hampson puts xanthindyma, Boisd., from Madagascar, indica, Guen., from India, auragoides, Guen., from Natal, variolosa, Walker, from North India, and edentata from Queensland all as synonyms of erosa, Hiibner, from America. Staudinger, in his Catalogue, 1901 edition, puts xanthin-dyma, indica, and auragoides under the American form. Warren, in Seilz's ' Macrolepidoptera of the Pakearctic Region/ vol. iii. p. 359 (Nov. 1913), puts auragoides, vario-losa, and edentata as synonyms with xanthindyma ; under erosa he puts indica. The superficial pattern of all these is more or less the same, but there are differences. I could not get myself to believe that, notwithstanding the geographical distances, ihey could all be one and the same species, and consequently I got the Rev. 0. R. N. Burrows, who is an expert on the genitalia of Lepidoptera, to examine specimens from many different parts of the globe, and I am very grateful to him and to Mr. F. N. Pierce of Liverpool for the pains they have taken in the matter. All the Plates are from drawings by Mr. Burrows, and all the notes on the genitalia are his, many of them having been submitted to Mr. Pierce for verification. Mr. Burrows says that the dissections show a relationship to the Erebusidae, to the genera Argioa and Patula in the large extensile coremala, dorsal of the valves ; he further Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. SSer. 9. Vol. iii. 21
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