vi HETEROCERA TIXEIDAE 429 



ii' Mr. Meyrick be correct in supposing that a single one of 

 the divisions of the family Oecophoridae comprises 2000 

 species in Australia and Xew Zealand alone. As the study 

 of these Insects is attended 

 with great difficulty on ac- 

 count of their fragility and 

 the minute size of the great 

 majority, it is not a matter 



for surprise that their classiti- 



4%' yt&M 



cation is in a comparatively *^~^T^ +^T 



rudimentary state. AVe shall 



not, therefore, deal with it here. 



^^ . . FIG. '207. Diplosaralignivora(Gelecbiides). 



Neither can we attempt to give Hawaiian islands. 



any idea of the extreme diversity 



in the colours, forms, and attitudes of these small Insects. The 

 one shown in Pig. 207, is remarkable on account of the great 

 accumulation of scales on the wings and legs. As regards the 

 pointed wings and the long fringes, we may remark that it is 

 probable that in many of these small forms the wings are 

 passive agents in locomotion ; a similar condition of the wings 

 is found in other very minute Insects, e.g. Thysauoptera and 

 Trichopterygidae ; in all these cases the framework of the wings is 

 nearly absent : in some forms of the Tineidae, Opostega, e.g. the 

 nervules are reduced to three or four in each wing. The 

 variety in habits is as great as that of the external form, and 

 the larvae exceed in diversity those of any other group of 

 Lepidoptera. Xo doubt a corresponding amount of diversity 

 will be discovered in the details of structure of the perfect 

 Insects, the anatomy of but few having been at present investi- 

 gated. Tinea pellionella has two very important peculiarities in 

 its internal anatomy : the testes consist of four round follicles 



u 



on each side, and, contrary to the condition generally prevalent 

 in Lepidoptera, are not brought together in a common capsule : the 

 two groups are, however, not <|iiite free (as they are in Hfpialv.s), 

 but are connected by a loose tracheal network. Even more 

 remarkable is the fact also pointed out by Cholodkovsky ' that 

 the adult Insect possesses only two Malpighian tubes instead of 

 six, the normal number in Lepidoptera; in the larva there are, 

 however, six elongate tubes. The group of forms to which 



1 Zool. ^><c. v. 1882. p. 262. 



