]\rE:\roTiiB of the national a(jai)i-::\iy of sciences. 



li) 



ITcail of Pa rasa chlnrie. 



adapted for its lit'e in a cell, being broad, oblicjiu'ly truncated, tiic snuill anteniuB bcin<>- protected 



by tlie riaring sides of the bead, which is verj- st)li(l, witli miiiieroiis I'ligosities and sin;dl tubercles. 



The regiou about the mouth is reuiarlvable. Tlu' clypeus and labrum are very uarrow, the eye 



transversely elougated, with an impressed Hue iu the middle. 



The eye-collar {mr. p.) is distinctly separated from the max- 



11 he {mx.). 



The two pieces (?/;.) at the base of the masillai may pos- 

 sibly prove to be the labial pali)i; if so, is the piece marked I. 



the labium ? The two paraclypeal pieces or tubercles (i).) appear 



to be the homologues of those iu the Psychidu'. 



The pupa' of this family are very extraordinary, but it will 



be seen that they are Piipw incomplctw, not Pupw libera; and 



prove that the family should stand much above the Microptery- 



gida' rather than below theiu, so far as regards pupal characters. 

 The shape of the head of Mepialus mustelinus and the 



reduced labium, with its 

 two-Jointed palpi and the 



still more atrophied maxillary palpi, are iuteresting. In H. 

 Idcomw the palpi of both pairs are larger, showing that the 

 jtrocess of reduction in Hepialus is a rather late one. 



The very primitive, generalized shape of the thorax of 

 the Ilepialida' is noteworthy. In Hepialus mustelinus the 

 collar or prothorax is very much reduced, while iu 11. iaeomtc 

 it is very long and generalized, as iu Stheuopis and the Aus- 

 tralian Ahnntiades arf/enteus. The mesoscutum is consider- 

 ably shorter than in IT. tacoma'. In the latter species the 

 metascutum is entirely divided by the large scutellum, while 

 iu H. mustelinus it is only partly divided, the apex of the 

 scutellum passing a little beyond the middle of the scutum. 

 It is thus (juite evident that Stheuopis is an earlier form 

 than H. tavoma; and that the latter is more generalized, 

 having undergone less modification than H. mustelinus. 

 The genus Hepialus occurs in Australia, and that continent appears to be the original home 



of the family. In Abantiailes aryenteus the autennaj are tripectinate, and the labial palpi are very 



large; in Hectomanes fusca the antennae are 



bii)ectinated, but the labial palpi are much 



reduced, being scarcely visible, while On- 



copera intricata is remarkably modified; 



though the anteun;e are simple, the eyes 



are very large, nearly meeting on the front, 



while the three-jointed labial palpi are 



remarkably long and slender, extending 



upward, and the hind legs have a remark- 

 able broad, flattened, curved pencil of hairs. 

 It thus appears that on the Australian 



continent this interesting family, which may 



be a survival of Jurassic times and coeval 



with the marsupials, has branched out along 



several lines of specialization, the most 



degenerate form being Hepialus, which has 



survived also in Europe and iu North 



America, especially on the Pacific Coast. On the whole, however, as we Lave seen, it is not so 



generalized a group as the Micropterygid;e, a group common to Europe and North America. 



Fig. 30. -TTead of pupa of Megalopyge (Lagoa.) 

 from Flurifla. 



Fig. 37. — Head of pupa of Lagoa, from Jalapa. Mexico; uix\ 

 ]»alpi; yy, paraclypeal piece; 7?ix., maxilljp; mx. p, maxillary palpi. 



labial 



