66 ILLINOIS BIOLOGICAL MONOGRAPHS [66 



Family Tischeriidae 



This family is a highly specialized group of Aculeata and its simi- 

 larity to the Gracilariidae has usually caused it to be placed with them. 

 The presence of crochets in the total absence of thoracic legs occurs only 

 in these two families. 



Head strongly depressed, three to six times as long as high ; front 

 extending to caudal margin of head, but usually narrowed caudad to a 

 point ; ocelli six in number, uniform in size. Body distinctly moniliform 

 as seen from above, strongly depressed ; thoracic legs wanting ; abdomi- 

 nal segments 3, 4, 5, and 6 with each proleg represented by a pair of 

 short, transverse, uniserial rows of very small uniordinal crochets. 



Tischeria malifoliella, T. complanella, and other species of this genus 

 are common blotch-miners. The front is wider at the caudal than at the 

 cephalic end. 



Coptotriche zelleriella is similar but less common. The front is nar- 

 rowed caudad to a point. 



SUPERFAMILY TINEOIDEA 



It is with regret that this superfamily name is used, for the word 

 may mean almost anything. But the group which includes Tinea must 

 receive the above title, however ambiguous the word. In the sense em- 

 ployed here the superfamily includes less than half of the genera included 

 by Dyar in Tineidae. The necessity for this change is explained in the 

 introduction to the Microlepidoptera on a preceding page. 



Characters of the larvae which show the relationship of the three 

 families included here are: first, the trisetose Kappa group on the pro- 

 thorax ; second, the distance by which kappa and eta are separated on 

 the abdomen ; third, the triangular front which is not open dorsad ; 

 fourth, the location of beta on the prothorax, where it is closer to the 

 dorsomeson than alpha. 



Family Acrolophidae 



The Acrolophidae, or Anaphorinae as they have been called, include 

 some of the largest and most primitive of the Microlepidoptera. In 

 addition to the structures common to the four tineoid families, Acrolo- 

 phidae are differentiated by a multiserial circle of crochets (Fig. 96) 

 and may be easily separated from Bueculatrigidae and Tineidae by the 

 large size and the fact that kappa on the prothorax is more closely 

 associated with theta near the spiracle than with eta in the more cephalic 

 and more usual position (Fig. 7). Pseudanaphora arcanella was the only 

 species examined. 



