434 



LEPIUOPTERA 



CHAP. 



so highly adapted for the tasting of sweets that it is difficult to 

 recognise in them the parts usually found in the maxilla of 

 rnandibulate Insects. Eriocepluda in both these respects connects 

 the Lepidoptera with Mandibulata : the mandibles have been 

 shown by Walter 1 to be fairly well developed ; and the maxillae are 

 not developed into a proboscis, but have each two separate, differen- 

 tiated not elongated lobes, and an elongate, five-jointed, very 

 flexible palpus. The moths feed on pollen, and use their 

 maxillae for the purpose, somewhat in the style we have men- 

 tioned in Prodoxidae. The wings have no frenulum, neither 

 have they any shoulder, and they probably function as separate 

 organs instead of as a united pair on each side : the modification 

 of the anterior parts of the hind wing whereby this \ving is 

 reduced as a flying agent to the condition of a subordinate to the 

 front wing does not here exist : the hind wing differs little from 

 the front wing in consequence of the parts in front of the cell being- 

 well developed. There is a small jugum. These characters have 

 led Packard to suggest that the Eriocephalidae should be separated 

 from all other Lepidoptera to form a distinct sub-Order, Lepidoptera 

 Laciniata. 2 The wing-characters of Uriocephala are repeated as 

 to their main features in Hepialidae and Micropterygidae ; but 

 both these groups differ from Eriocephcda as to the structure of 

 the mouth-parts, and in their metamorphoses. Although Erio- 

 cepliala calthella is one of our 

 most abundant moths, occur- 

 ring in the spring nearly every- 

 where, and being easily found 

 on account of its habit of sit- 

 ting in buttercup-flowers, yet 

 its metamorphoses were till 

 recently completely unknown. 

 Dr. Chapman has, however, 



been able to five US some -^ IG> ~^9. Larva of Eriocephala caWiflln. 



information as to the habits 

 and structure of the larvae, in 

 both of which points the crea- 

 ture is most interesting. The eggs and young larvae are " quite 



(After Chapman. ) A, Young larva from 

 side, x 50 ; B, portion of skin with a bulla 

 or ball-like appendage : c, abdominal foot 

 of larva. 



1 Walter, Jena. Zeitschr. Naturw. xviii. 1885. He did not distinguish Erio- 

 cephala as a genus, as we have explained on p. 308. 



2 Amcr. Natural, xxix. 1895, pp. 636 and 803. 



