HETEROCERA URANIIDAE 



419 



Fam. 39. Uraniidae.- — A family of small extent, including 



light-bodied moths with ample wings and thread-like antennae ; 



most of them resemble Geometridae, but a few genera, Urania 



and JSfyctalemon, are like Swallow-tail butterflies and have 



similar habits. The Madagascar moth, Chrysiriclia madagascar- 



iensis (better known as Urania rhiplieus), is a most elegant and 



beautiful Insect, whose only close allies (except an East African 



congener) are the tropical American species of Urania, which 



were till recently treated as undoubtedly congeneric with the 



Madagascar moth. The family consists of but six genera and 



some sixty species. The question of its afiinities has given rise 



to much discussion, but on the whole it would appear that these 



Insects are least ill-placed near Noctuidae.^ The larva of the 



South American genus Coro- 



nidia. is in general form like 



° 2 - 



a Noctuid larva, and has the 



normal number of legs ; it 

 possesses a few peculiar fleshy 

 processes on the back. A 

 description of the larva of 4. 

 Chrysiridia madagascariensis 

 has been widely spread ; but 

 according to Camboue,' the 6 

 account of the metamorphoses, 

 first given by Boisduval, is 

 erroneous. The larva, it ap- * 

 pears, resembles in general 

 form that of Coronidia, and Fig 

 has sixteen feet ; it is, how- 

 ever, armed with long, spatu- 

 late black hairs ; it changes to 

 a pupa in a cocoon of open 

 network. 



In all the species of this family we have examined, we have 

 noticed the existence of a highly peculiar structure that seems 

 hitherto to have escaped observation. On each side of the 

 second abdominal segment there is an ear -like opening (usually 



206. — Abdomen of Chrysiridia mada- 

 gascariensis. A, Horizontal section show- 

 ing the lower part of the male abdomen : 

 1, first segment ; 2, spiracle of second 

 segment ; 4-8, jiosterior segments. B, 

 the abdomen seen from the side, with the 

 segments numbered. The section is that 

 of an old, dried specimen. 



1 See AVestwood, Tr. Zool. Soe. London, x. pp. 507, etc., for discussion of this 

 question and for figures ; also E. Reuter, Act. Soe. Sci. Fenn. xxii. 1896, p. 202. 



2 Congr. Internat. Zool. ii. 1892, pt. 2, p. 180. 



