232 LLOYD S NATURAL HISTORY. 



FAMILY FIDONIID.^. 



Moderate-sized moths, with pectinated antennae, hairy head 

 and palpi, the latter prominent, and beak-like ; the proboscis 

 short, and the body rather long and slender. The legs are 

 bare and slender, and the hind tibiae are not swollen. The 

 wings are broad, and generally dusted with dark specks. The 

 larvae are long -and cylindrical, and the pupce are generally 

 subterranean. The moths fly by day. 



This is a Family of considerable extent. Several commoB 

 European species are heath-frequenting insects. 



GENUS EPIDESMIA. 



Epidesmia, Westwood in Jardine's Nat, Libr. Exot. Moths 

 p. 220 (1841). 



The body is slender ; the head small ; the antennae long, 

 slender, and filiform ; the palpi nearly three times as long as 

 the head, compressed, slender, attenuated to the tip, and curved 

 downwards ; the spiral tongue long. The fore-wings are large, 

 and somewhat triangular, with the apex acute, and slightly 

 falcate. The median nervure of the fore-wings emits three 

 branches, the third of which is connected by a slender nervule 

 with the inner branch of the sub-costal nervure, a simple 

 longitudinal nervule extending from the base of the wing to 

 the extremity, through the middle of this cross vein. The 

 first and second branches of the sub-costal nervure do not 

 reach to the costal margin of the wing, but form small oblong 

 cells. The hind-wings are large, with the hind margin 

 slightly emarginate. The abdomen is slender, but somewhat 

 thickened towards the extremity. The legs are long and 

 slender, and the front coxae are elongated. 



