LliMACODIDAE. By Dr. A. Seitz. 339 



20. Family: Limacodidae. 



This family, which contains about 400 species, is one of tlie most specialised groups of Moths. Stnic- 

 tuie, life-history and habits prove the family to be decidedly homogeneous. The round .shape met with 

 among the larvae, pupae and imagines is not found so generally and so uniformly developed m any other 

 family of Lepidoptera. The larva has nearly always an ovate contour; the cocoon is an almost geometrically 

 correct small egg; the fore- and hindwings of the moth are likewise in most cases ovate with the angles nearly 

 effaced. 



As regards anatomical peculiarities a short description will be sufficient, as quite a number of exceed- 

 ingly conspicuous characteristics render it quite impossible to confuse Limacodids with members of other 

 families. The larva has, above all, the peculiarity that the venter instead of bearing single prolegs is modi- 

 fied into one broad adhesine sole (slug-larva). Whether the caterpillar is smooth or hairy, provided with 

 tubercles or tufts, warts or spines, it is always flattened beneath, the venter being whitish, soft, exceedingly 

 pliant, smooth, mmutely adjustable, the specimen fastenmg itself the leaf of the food-plant by pressing the 

 ventral margins down and raising the centre of the venter. Our small Cochlidion limacodes larvae sit on the 

 leaf of the food-plant like small green knobs or galls, being sometimes so well fastened that they can hardly 

 be moved with the finger. The head lies beneath the projecting thorax, into which it is retracted at rest, so that 

 is disappears in a dorsal aspect under the shield-like back, which renders it difficult to decide which is fore- 

 part and which anal end. Also the caterpillars which are not evenly elliptical in outline like our European 

 species, have the peculiar markings and ornamentation usually so arranged that fore and aft look the same. 

 The larva of Parasa consocia Walk., e. g., represents in dorsal aspect a regular oblong with rounded corners, 

 a pair of spiked clubs projecting anteriorly and an exactly similar pair posteriorly. 



The larvae spin for pupation an entirely uniform cocoon like paper, which sometimes bears an ornamen- 

 tation reiulering it similar to a bird's egg. Pupation does not at once take place in the cocoon, but the larva 

 remains for weeks or even month in the state ofa sort of propupa, i. e. being soft, discoloured, contracted, and not 

 entirely unable to move, even rather mobile when molested. If the cocoon is injured during this period, the 

 larva is often able to spin up the hole, whicli proves that the faculty of spmning remains with the larva 

 for a while at this stage. Only in the preceding family, the Megalopygidae, a similar phenomenon obtains. 



When the insect has at last turned into a chrysalis, this exhibits also a number of characteristics. 

 Although little different in shape from other pupae, except that it is very broad and obtuse at the anal end, 

 the sheaths of the antennae, wings and legs are not soldered to the body, but are free as in the pupa of a beetle, 

 such a pupa being called "pupa libera" in contradistinction to the "mummy pupa". 



The moths are stout, with short abdomen, which does not or scarcely reach the anal angle of the hind- 

 wing. Wings rounded, often very brightly coloured, sometimes adorned with gold and silver spots, but usually 

 with simplified markings. The legs as a rule bear very uniformly long briish-like hair; the tarsi also being hairy, 

 the last segment with the claws being covered over and the tarsus having the appearance of ending with a 

 pencil of hair. Sometimes these tarsi, which recall the paws of a cat, are a counterpart to the abnormally 

 developed palpi, which project in the shape of pencil far beyond the head of the insect at rest. 



Head broad; eyes large and globular; frons woolly; antenna of o usually pectinate proximally, apex 

 simple. Thorax globular, broad, smooth-hairy ; abdomen stout ; tibiae spinose and like the tarsi with strong 

 crests of hair. Wmgs very evenly oval, entire, with long fringes; costal vein separated from the costal edge, 

 midway between this and the subcostal; cell broad at the apex; discocellular usually strongly angulate; 

 a vein extends from it down the cell to near base and sometimes appears as a continuation of one of the 

 radials, beuag occasionally forked, the 2 branches joining the two radials; the submedian of the forewing is 

 forked at the base, which is evidence for two veins having become merged together. The position of the veins, 

 which are nearly all equidistant from one another, reminds one superficially of certain Neuroptera. 



The fa,mily is distributed over all the continents; but Europe with its 2 species and Northern Asia 

 with 8 — 10 appear exceedmgly poor; North America has about 30 species, Japan about 15, and Amurland 

 about 9. One of the largest species, Natada velutini Koll. , described from Kashmir, reaches there Palearctic 

 territory; its expanse is sometimes more than 70 mm. Most other species are small or medium-sized; some, 



