47 



DESCRIPTIONS OF AUSTRALASIAN MICRO- 

 LEPIDOPTERA. 



By E. Meyrick, B.A., F.R.S., Corresponding Member. 



XIX. PLUTELLID^. 



I have recently examined much material of this group from 

 the Oriental region, where it seems to be rather more prominently 

 developed than elsewhere, and at present I give the family Plu- 

 tellidce a more extended application than I did in my Handbook 

 of British Lepidoptera. There it consisted of the groups of Ypono- 

 meuta, Glyphipteryx, and Plutella; to these I now add the groups 

 of Gracilaria and Zelleria, which I formerly included in the 

 Tineidce. To explain this change I may say that I now assign 

 more importance to the smooth posterior tibiae which are a 

 normal attribute of those two groups, than to the rough head 

 which is a frequent characteristic. Moreover, whilst folded 

 maxillary palpi are peculiarly characteristic of the Tineidce, the 

 simple porrected maxillary palpi of the Gracilaria group are so 

 similar to those of the Plutella group, and so di£ferent from those 

 of any other Tineina, that they would seem to indicate real 

 affinity. I regard then the Gracilaria group as being a narrow- 

 wiuged modification of the Plutella group (with the peculiar 

 larval character of an absence of prolegs on segment 10); and 

 the Zelleria group as a narrow-winged modification of the Ypono- 

 meuta group. The habit of Zelleria and its allies of resting on 

 their heads with the hindpart raised is probably imitative of 

 birds' droppings. The reversed habit of Gracilaria and its allies 

 of sitting on their tails, so to speak, with the fore-parts raised, 

 was doubtless acquired to display the peculiar thickened and 

 decorated anterior and middle legs (for which I can conjecture 

 no other object than sexual display), and seems to have been 



