Lithosiidae 
Genus DAHANA Grote 
Only one species, the type of the genus, is known. 
(i) Dahana atripennis Grote, Plate XIII, Fig. 23, $ . (The 
Black-winged Dahana.) 
The habitat of this species is southern Florida. The insect 
does not appear to be common in collections. 
FAMILY LITHOSIID/E 
“You would be another Penelope: yet, they say, all the yarn she spun 
in Ulysses’s absence did but fill Ithaca full of moths.” 
—Shakespeare, Coriolanus, 1,3. 
The moths belonging to this family have the larvae of the 
usual form displayed by the Arctiidae, with all of the prolegs 
present. They feed principally upon lichens. They pupate in 
cocoons spun up of silk, in which the hairs of the larva are 
mingled. 
The perfect insects, or imagoes, are of medium size or small. 
As a family, they present many variations in structure, both as 
to the venation of the wings and secondary sexual characteris¬ 
tics. The following general characterization of the group is 
taken from Hampson, “Catalogue of the Lepidoptera Phalaenae,” 
Vol. II, p. 80: 
“ Proboscis usually well developed, but often aborted; palpi 
usually short and porrect, sometimes reaching well beyond the 
frons, often upturned, rarely reaching above the vertex of the 
head; antennae of male usually with bristles and cilia, often bipec- 
tinate, sometimes dilated or with tuft of scales on upper side of 
shaft; ocelli absent; tibiae with the spurs usually moderate, some¬ 
times long or absent. Fore wing typically long and narrow, but 
in a large section, short and broad, the narrow winged genera 
having vein 5, and often vein 4, absent. Hind wing with 
vein 8 coincident with the cell from base to one-third or to 
near end of cell.” 
About a dozen genera have thus far been recognized as 
represented in the fauna of the region of which this book 
treats. 
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