4 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [January, 



ELEMENTARY ENTOMOLOGY. 



LEPIDOPTERA-HETEROCERA (Moths). 

 By Prof. JOHN B. SMITH, New Brunswick, N. J. 



Following the Limacodidae in our lists are the Psychidae. There 

 is really very little to associate this latter family with any that 

 have gone before, nor that immediately follow, but I have no 

 more satisfactory location to propose. The larvae of this family 

 are all bag worms; that is, they make a bag or case for their pro- 

 tection, which they carry with them everywhere, and in which 

 the entire larval life is passed. The females, indeed, usually do 

 not leave their case at all, but are wingless or larviform, and the 

 eggs frequently develop or mature within the abdomen without 

 being laid in the ordinary way. In due time the young cater- 

 pillars hatch and then eat their way through the egg-shell, the 

 mother womb and out of the old bag. They start a case of their 

 own almost immediately, and enlarge this as growth renders it 

 necessary. The cases are characteristic, and differ in the species; 

 some are -made of silk alone, some are covered with leaf frag- 

 ments, and some with little sticks. It is interesting that, in some 

 exotic species, the bags differ in the sexes; not only in size, but 

 also in make up. That of the male will often have a larger, 

 stouter twjg or stick projecting below it, and on this it rests when 

 emerged from the pupa, and until it is fully mature. The female, 

 which does not leave her house at all, requires no such structure, 

 and therefore builds none. The male insects are always winged, 

 the wings frequently quite large, often transparent, or thinly 

 clothed with scales, the color usually black. The antennae are 

 pectinated, often even plumose. The tongue is short, or almost 

 wanting, in the female rudimentary. The venation is as curious 

 and aberrant as is the rest of the insect, and it varies considerably 

 within family limits. The median cell is always divided on both 

 wings; an accessory cell may be present either at the upper or 

 lower angle of the cell; the veins sometimes branch before they 

 reach the margin, and the internal veins are either branched, or, 

 on the primaries, with a long fork at the base. In our lists Pcro- 

 phora and Lacosoma are referred to this family. Mr. Kirby 

 thinks they do not belong here, and refers them to the Drepanu- 

 liike, which may or mav not be correct. They are probably not 

 Psychidae. 



