478 DESCRIPTIONS OF AUSTRALIAN MICRO-LEPIDOPTERA, 



(with wliich alone they can be confused) by a consideration of the 

 total of other characters. 



I consider the Tineidae to have been developed fi'om an early 

 form of the Plutellidae, closely approaching the primitive Alicro- 

 pterygidae. The Lyonetiadae and Gracilariadae I regard as 

 offshoots from some of the more degenerate forms of the Tineidae. 

 The family, though less numerous than some others, is still a large 

 one, and seems to be pretty evenly distributed throughout the 

 world. 



The following are the characters of the family : — 



Head roughly haired, face sometimes smooth. Antenna? 

 variable in length, usually |-1, joints often closely set, transverse. 

 Labial palpi usually nearly straight, often with scattered bristles, 

 apex rarely acute. Maxillary palpi often strongly developed, 

 several-jointed, folded, sometimes absent. Foi'ewings with vein 

 1 furcate or more rarely simple, 2 from or rather near angle, 11 

 usually from or before middle, upper margin of cell usually more 

 or less obsolete towards base, secondary cell often well-marked, 

 forked parting-vein usually well-defined. Hindwings usually as 

 broad as forewings, sometimes narrower, very rarely broader 

 varying from subovate to linear; vein 8 free. Larva sixteen- 

 1 egged or apodal. 



The folded several -jointed maxillary palpi are confined to the 

 rough-headed families of the Tineina ; they are not however by 

 any means constantly present, the tendency to their loss being so 

 strong, that they are not unfrequently present in one of two closely 

 allied genera and absent, or nearly so, in the other. Hence, while 

 their presence is a highly valuable indication of affinity, their 

 absence proves nothing. They are notwithstanding one of the 

 primitive chai'acters of the ancestors of the family. I am however 

 unable at present to see how, on any scheme of descent, all those 

 genera which possess long folded maxillary palpi can have retained 

 them by direct inheritance from the primitive form ; and it seems 

 necessary to assume that in some instances they may have reverted 

 from a state of partial (not entire) obsolescence to their originally 

 fully-developed structure. 



