vi HETEROCERA TINEIDAE 429 



it' Mr. Meyrick be correct in supposing that a single one of 



tin- divisions of the family Oecophorida< --- comprises 2000 



species in Australia and New Zealand alone. As the study 



of these Insects is attended 



with great difficulty on ac- 



count of their fragility and 



the minute size of the great 



majority, it is not a matter 



for surprise that their classifi- 



cation is in a comparatively 



rudimentary state. We shall 



not, therefore, deal with it here. 



_.-.., . FIG. 207. 



Neither can we attempt to give Hawaiian islands. 



any idea of the extreme diversity 



in the colours, forms, and attitudes of these small Insects. The 

 one shown in Fig. 207, is remarkable on account of the great 

 accumulation of scales on the wings and legs. As regards the 

 pointed wings and the long fringes, we may remark that it is 

 probable that in many of these small forms the wings are 

 passive agents in locomotion ; a similar condition of the wings 

 is found in other very minute Insects, e.g. Thysauoptera and 

 Trichopterygidae ; in all these cases the framework of the wings is 

 nearly absent : in some forms of the Tineidae, Opostega, e.g. tin- 

 nervules are reduced to three or four in each wing. The 

 variety in habits is as great as that of the external form, and 

 the larvae exceed in diversity those of any other group of 

 Lepidoptera. No doubt a corresponding amount of diversity 

 will be discovered in the details of structure of the perfect 

 Insects, the anatomy of but few having been at present investi- 

 gated. Ti ura pellionella has two very important peculiarities in 

 its internal anatomy : the testes consist of four round follicles 

 ou each side, and, contrary to the condition generally prevalent 

 in Lepidoptera, are not brought together in a common capsule : the 

 two groups are, however, not quite free (as they are in Hepi<iln* . 

 but are connected by a loose tracheal network. Even more 

 remarkable is the fact also pointed out by Cholodkovsky l that 

 the adult Insect possesses only two Malpighian tubes instead of 

 six, the normal number in Lepidoptera ; in the larva there are. 

 however, six elongate tubes. The group of forms to which 



1 Zool. An:, v. 1882. p. 262. 



