In describing a moth various markings, etc., have to be referred to, and as it may assist the reader more easily to locate the usual position of such characters the accompanying diagram has been prepared. The lines crossing the fore wings from the front edge, or margin (_costa_), to the inner edge, or margin (_dorsum_), are generally styled transverse lines; the short one is the basal; the first long one is the inner, or antemedial; the second is the outer, or postmedial; and the third is the submarginal, or subterminal. The whole wing, less the margins, is sometimes called the disc; but it is more convenient to divide the fore wing into three parts, naming that between the base of the wing and the first line the basal area; the space between the first and second lines the central or median area, and the part beyond the second line the outer area. The more or less round or oval rings or dashes on {6} the central area are the stigmata, and these characters occur more especially in the Noctuidæ. The hind wings usually have a fine short line, crescent, or spot, at the end of the cell, as in the butterflies, and there is generally a line or band beyond. Immediately behind the head and covering the front part of the thorax is a tippet-like arrangement of scales; this is the collar. On each side of the thorax there is a shoulder lappet (_patagium_) which has its base on the front part of the thorax also. Both tippet and lappet are often peculiarly ornamented, and the former is sometimes strikingly coloured. The thorax is sometimes crested, and more frequently the body is furnished with tufts of erect hair scales. The number of moths occurring in the British Islands is well over two thousand. The majority of these hardly ever find favour with the collector. This is probably owing in a large measure to the fact that they belong to a division of the moth tribe which has been dubbed Micro-lepidoptera. It happens, however, that quite a number of the species included in that division are actually larger than many kinds that were placed in the other contingent styled Macro-lepidoptera. According to the most recent authorities the division of moths into two such main groups as those adverted to is entirely fictitious and misleading. Possibly, when this new order of things is more generally understood the so-called "Micros" will receive their proper share of attention.