Lepidoptera 



233 



give them a distinctly swollen appearance. The larvz are covered 

 with numerous tubercles and hairs. 



Limacodidse. — The Limacodidte are a family of moths nearly 

 related to the Zygxnidx, which they resemble in the number of 

 anal nervures in both fore- and hind-wings ; the sub-costal nervure 

 of the hindwing, however, bends downwards and anastomoses with 

 the radial, afterwards separating, instead of being joined to it by a 

 cross-nervule. The forewings, moreover, are relatively broader 

 than in the Burnets, while the first maxills are greatly reduced, no 

 food being taicen in the perfect state. The Limacodidas fly at 

 night, and are usually yellow or brown in their wing-patterns. 

 The caterpillars are broad and slug-like with very small, retractile 

 limbs; they feed openly on the leaves of plants, and some exotic 

 forms are armed with stinging tubercles. The pupal segments are 

 as in the "Zjgxnidz, but the pupa is enclosed in a hard cocoon, a 

 circular lid allowing the 

 moth to emerge. The 

 Limacodidae are fairly 

 numerous in the tropics 

 but scarce elsewhere ; only 

 two species are British. 



C a s t n i i d ae. — T h e 

 CastniiJa; are a small family 

 of large, day-flying, 

 brightly - coloured moths 

 whose wing - neuration 

 closely agrees with that of 

 the ZygKnidsE. The 

 feelers are clubbed, as in the 

 higher families of Lepi- 

 doptera ("butterflies") 

 but the Castniids may be 

 readily distinguished from 

 them by possessing a frenulum, as well as by the much more primitive 

 neuration (fig. 127). The larvs are devoid of spines, and feed in 

 the stems or roots of plants ; there are three or four free pupal seg- 

 ments. The family is confined to Tropical America, Indo-Malaya, 

 and the Australian Region. 



Megalopygidae. — The Megalopygida are a small family of hairy 

 American moths with broad rounded wings whose neuration 

 resembles that of the Burnets, except that the three anal nervures 

 of the forewing are distinct for the greater part of their length. 

 The larvje are very remarkable in having seven pairs of prolegs, 

 the only instance among Lepidoptera except the Eriocephalidse of 

 there being more than five pairs present. 



Psychidae. — The Psychida: are a small but universally distributed 

 family of moths characterised by the extreme degradation of their 

 females. The larvae live in portable cases made of sticks, grass, 



Fig. 127. — Castnia o'onis, Cram., Male, 

 Mexico. Natural size. From Edwards, 

 Insect Life, vol. 3 (U.S. Dept. Agr.). 



