134 AVSTRAl.IAii JUIOPALOCERA: LVC.HX J D.E, III., 



tralia, where the collections are better and larger than elsewhere. 

 For the purposes of this paper I have examined ten lar^^e collec- 

 tions of Lycsenidse, aggregating about four thousand specimens, 

 and in addition I have seen the rarer species from three other 

 collections amounting to over another thousand. 



An undertaking that would be of great benetit to Australian 

 entomologists would be the redescription and figuring of many 

 of the older species, the types of which are in London, such as 

 the Fabrician species from the Collection of Sir Joseph Banks : 

 and Hewitson's species, many of which are imperfectly described 

 and figured, and supplied with very vague localities. 



Family LYC^XID^. 



'^Forelegs slender and evidently smaller than the rest, but 

 nearly alike in the sexes, used for walking, scaly; tarsus of the 

 male long, exarticulate; that of the female jointed like in the 

 hindlegs, Foreivhig with the subcostal nervure emitting two, 

 three, or rarely four branches; the discoidal cell generally narrow 

 owing to the distance between the costal and subcostal nervures; 

 upper discocellular nervule wanting. All but one or two of small 

 size. Hindwing scarcely channelled to receive the abdomen, 

 often with one or more slender tails; prsecostal nervure apparently 

 wanting. Body rather slender except in Liphyra; antenna? short, 

 often ringed with white, with an elongate distinct club; palpi 

 usually elongate, terminal joint slender, horizontal, and nearly 

 naked " (de Niceville). 



In addition to the above-mentioned sexual differences, the males 

 often have differently placed scales or long hairs, such as the large 

 almost circular patch on the forewing of H. phorbas, and the long 

 black hairs on inner margin of the underside of forewing in E. 

 simso7ii. Where any difference in the size of the palpi occurs, 

 those of the female are the longer. 



The larvae are onisciform, mostly night feeders, and in a great 

 number of cases are attended by ants. The pupa is attached by 

 the tail with a girdle round the middle, and is found under pieces 



