VI 



HETEROCERA URANIIDAE 



419 



Fam. 39. Uraniidae. A family of small extent, including 

 light-bodied moths with ample wings and thread-like antennae; 

 most of them resemble Geometridae, but a few genera, Urania 

 and Nyctalemon, are like Swallow-tail butterflies and have 

 similar habits. The Madagascar moth, Chrysiridia madagascar- 

 iensis (better known as Urania rhipheus), is a most elegant and 

 beautiful Insect, whose only close allies (except an East African 

 congener) are the tropical American species of Urania, which 

 were till recently treated as undoubtedly congeneric with the 

 Madagascar moth. The family consists of but six genera and 

 some sixty species. The question of its affinities has given rise 

 to much discussion, but on the wdiole it would appear that these 

 Insects are least ill-placed near Noctuidae. 1 The larva of the 

 South American genus Coro- 

 n ill in is in general form 'like 

 a Noctuid larva, and has the 

 normal number of legs ; it 

 possesses a few peculiar fleshy 

 processes on the back. A 

 description of the larva of 4 

 Oh rysiridia madagascariensis 

 has been widely spread ; but 

 according to Carnboue, 2 the 6 

 account of the metamorphoses, 

 first given by Boisduval, is 



The larva, it ap- 8 



in general 



erroneous, 

 pears, resembles 

 form that of Coronidia, and 

 has sixteen feet ; it is, how- 

 ever, armed with long, spatu- 

 late black hairs ; it changes to 

 a pupa in a cocoon of open 



7- 



3 



A B 



206. Abdomen of dn-jtsiritlia mada- 

 gascariensis. A, Horizontal section show- 

 ing the lower part of the male abdomen : 

 1, first segment ; 2, spiracle of second 

 segment ; 4-8, posterior segments. B, 

 the abdomen seen from the side, with the 

 segments numbered. The section is that 

 of an old, dried specimen. 



network. 



In all the species of this family we have examined, we have 

 noticed the existence of a highly peculiar structure that seems 

 hitherto to have escaped observation. On each side of the 

 .second abdominal segment there is an ear-like opening (usually 



1 See AVestwood, Tr. Zool. Soc. London, x. pp. 507, etc., for discussion of this 

 question and for figures ; also E. Renter, Act. Soc. Sci. Fcnn. xxii. 1896, p. 202. 



2 Con<jr. Internal. Zool. ii. 1892, pt. 2, p. 180. 



