14^ Lloyd's natural history. 



FAMILY XXXTX. HEPIALID.4:. 



Eg'g'- — Small, round, oval, white at first, but soon turning 

 black. 



Larva. — Cylindrical, with scattered hairs ; feeding on or in 

 the roots of low plants, but the larger species in the wood of 

 trees. 



Pupa. — Slender, enclosed in a slight cocoon in loose earth, 

 or in the burrows of the larvas. 



Imag-o. — With rather long and narrow wings ; hind-wings with 

 the same neuration as the fore-wings ; antennae short ; pro- 

 boscis and frenulum obsolete ; but the place of the latter 

 supplied by a "jugum," which is a lobe near the base of the 

 fore-wings, projecting below the costa of the hind-wings. 



On account of the two characters above emphasized, which 

 occur only in the families HepialidcE and Micropterygidcp, some 

 recent authors have proposed to separate these two otherwise 

 very dissimilar families as a primary section of the Lepidopiei-a 

 under the name of JiigatcE. They are assumed to be the sole 

 surviving representatives of the original root-stock of the order 

 Lepidoptera. To me, this assumption, and the erection of two 

 discordant families into a main section on the strength of two 

 characters only, appears to be at least premature. 



GENUS IIEPIALUS. 



Hepiabts, Fabricius, Syst. Ent. p. 589(1775); Latreille, Nouv. 

 Diet. d'Hist. Nat. xxiv. p. 186 (1804): Stephens, 111. 

 Brit. Ent. Haust. ii., p. 4 (1828); Curtis, Brit. Ent. iii., 

 pi. 185 (1826); God'.rt, Lepid. France, iv., p. 30 (1832) ; 

 Boisduval, Icones Lepid. ii., p. 185 (1834 ?) ; Duponchel, 

 Cat. Lepid. d'Eur. p. 82(1844); Walker, List Lepid. 

 Ins. Brit. Mus. vii., p. 1550 (1856.) 



