HEPIALUB] HEPIALIDAE 801 



Britain to Ross, Ireland, rather common ; N. and C. Europe, 

 Asia Minor; 6-9. Larva shining whitish; head orange-brown ; 

 plate of 2, and some marks on 3 and 4 brownish-orange : on 

 roots of I! a UK. i\ Taraxacum, etc. ; 9-7. 



5. H. humuli, L. 44-64 mm. Antennae in <$ simple. Posterior 

 tibiae in with dense tuft of hairs. Forewings in <$ with ter- 

 men sinuate, silvery-white, costal edge reddish-fuscous ; in 9 

 pale yellow-ochreous, with some ill-defined anterior spots and 

 two posterior irregular lines from costa not reaching dorsum 

 brown -reddish. Hindwings in < as forewings, in $ light 

 ochreous-grey, faintly reddish-tinged. In a variable local form 

 occurring in the Shetland Isles and occasionally southwards to 

 Lanark, the <$ varies into the colour and markings of the $ 

 and is sometimes much suffused with brown, the hindwings 

 sometimes dark fuscous, the ? varies in colour from whitish 

 to orange-brown. 



Britain to Shetlands, Ireland, common ; N. and C. Europe, 

 Asia Minor ; 6, 7. Larva whitish ; head and plate of 2 red-brown : 

 on roots of grasses, Rumex, Lamium, Urtica, etc. ; 8-5. The $ 

 attracts the $ , as in H. hectus ; its white colour doubtless 

 assists this process in the twilight. 



2. MICROPTERYGIDAE. 



Head rough. Ocelli present. Maxillary palpi long, several- 

 jointed, folded. Forewings : Ib furcate, sometimes connected 

 by bar with dorsum, Ic connected with cell by bar near base, 

 forked parting- vein strong, rising from lower cell-margin near 

 base, secondary cell well-marked, 12 connected with cell by bar 

 near base. 



This family has not been satisfactorily identified elsewhere 

 than in the European region, N. and S. America, and New 

 Zealand ; but the inconspicuous character of the imagos, which 

 are in some instances almost invisible on the wing, renders them 

 peculiarly liable to be overlooked. The species are all small, 

 and fly in the sunshine ; the forewings are ovate-lanceolate with 

 bronzy -golden and purple colouring, often with a pale dorsal 

 praetorual spot or transverse fasciae. 



The New Zealand genus Palaeomicra is the most ancient 

 known. It differs from Eriocephala in still retaining the follow- 

 ing ancestral characters, viz. the trifurcation of Ib (in one 

 species), the subbasal bar between the parting-vein and upper 

 cell-margin, the additional vein rising out of 11, and (in one 



3 F 



