PYRALID^E. 255 



men long, smootli, squamous, acute at the tip, conical or tufted in male. Antenna 

 slender, filiform or moniliform ; often long ; some ciliated, or finely pectinated, or 

 with a basal tuft. Labial palpi generally alike in both sexes, sometimes rostriform, 

 in others of the usual shape, rarely tufted and reflexed over the head. Maxillary 

 palpi very frequently distinct. Legs long, slender, smooth, rarely villose, tarsi and 

 spurs long. 



Larva with 16 feet; generally short, rather thick, attenuated at each end; some- 

 times warty, some also slightly pilose. Lives concealed ; generally enclosed between 

 the leaves of food-plant united together by silken threads, or in silken galleries 

 among moss and lichens. One group lives on plants under water, either in a case 

 filled with air, or quite exposed to the water and then breathing by means of branchige. 



Pupa in a slight cocoon within places of feeding. Chrysalis generally pointed at 

 the ends ; some with a lingual and pedal protuberant sheath. 



Genus VITESSA. 



Vitessa, Moore, Catal. Lep. Mus. E. I. C. ii. p. 299 (1858-9) ; Lederer, Pyr. Wien. Ent. Monats. vii. 



p. 354 (1863). 

 Cosmethts (part), Hiibner, Verz. bek. Schmett, p. 179. 



Forewing long, narrow ; cell extending nearly three-fifths the length ; first sub- 

 costal emitted at one-third before end of the cell ; second immediately before the 

 end, free, third from the end, trifid ; discocellular very slender, deeply concave, bent 

 close to upper end, radial from the upper end ; two upper medians on a footstalk 

 beyond end of the cell, second close to the end, first (or lower) about one-fourth 

 before the end ; submedian almost straight : hind wing rather long, apex obtuse, 

 exterior margin very oblique, slightly convex, abdominal margin short ; subcostal 

 very slender, running close under the costal ; cell one-third the length at its upper 

 end, and nearly two-thirds at its lower end ; two subcostals on a footstalk beyond 

 end of the cell ; discocellular very slender, concave anteriorly, its lower end extend- 

 ing obliquely outward ; two upper medians on a footstalk beyond end of the cell, 

 second at one-sixth, first (or lower) at one-third; submedian and two internal veins 

 at equal distances apart. Body moderately stout ; abdomen depressed and broadest 

 at the apex, with laxly-clothed valvular anal appendages in male ; labial palpi 

 obliquely ascending, long, rather slender, squamous, second and third joints of equal 

 length ; maxillary palpi slender ; antennae in male pectinated to near the tip, the 

 branches pubescent; legs strong, rather long ; tibio3 and tarsi clothed with lax spiny 

 scales, spurs long. 



Type, V. Suradeva. 



Note. — This Lithosiid-looking insect is placed in this family with considerable 

 doubt. 



