Heterocera from the Australian Region. 383 



(Liparida) ; that Nepita really belongs to the latter 

 family has been proved to me by Mr. F. Moore. 



CYPTASIA, Walk. 



The following species belongs to a genus which has 

 been referred to the Lithosiidce ; its structure appears to 

 indicate some affinity to the Micro-Lepidoptera ;' never- 

 theless, for the present it may stand where it has been 

 placed. 



3-. Cyptasia cristata, n. s. 



Somewhat nearly allied to C. egregiella, but smaller ; primaries 

 bronze-brown, flecked with cream-colour and with seven unequal 

 but nearly equidistant spots round the borders of the wing, three 

 costal, the third being a mere narrow oblique dash, one external 

 and three internal ; fringe yellow opposite to the white spots ; 

 secondaries bright salmon-orange, with a few greyish scales at 

 apex ; head sulphur-yellow, crested ; antennae pale bronze-brown, 

 with white basal joint ; thorax dark brown, white-spotted behind ; 

 abdomen salmon-coloured ; under surface salmon-coloured, the 

 primaries greyish, especially towards apex; fringe alternately 

 brown and sulphur-yellow as above. Expanse of wings, 20 mm. 



Gayndah. 



Until such genera as Themiscyra, Cyptasia, &c., have 

 been carefully reared, and their actual affinities satis- 

 factorily ascertained, their great resemblance to typical 

 genera of Lithosiida will always tend to raise a doubt as 

 to their actual distinctness from that family ; characters 

 offered by the imago alone are, as already shown in the 

 case of the various genera formerly associated under 

 Acronycta, not always reliable ; and for this reason (if 

 for no other) all families erected upon the structure of 

 the imago alone should be regarded with disfavour by 

 lepidopterists : there cannot be a question that the 

 Micro-Lepidoptera ought to be distributed among the 

 larger moths, and that the sole reason for which the 

 fathers of Entomology associated them was their usually 

 small size ; yet it has been difficult in some cases for 

 the most careful students to decide to their own satis- 

 faction whether they had before them a Deltoid or a 

 Tortrix, a Noctua or a Tinea (these names are applied 

 in their wide signification, of course) ; even the most 

 confident workers have, after describing a species as a 



