﻿HETEROCERA URAMIDAE 



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 Nyctalcmon, are like Swallow-tail butterflies and have 

 similar habits. The Madagascar moth, Ghrysiridia madagascar- 

 iensis (better known as Urania rhijaheus), 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 whole it would appear that these 

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

 South American genus Coro- 

 111 'ilia 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 

 Ghrysiridia madagascariensis 

 has been widely spread ; but 

 •according to Camboue, 2 the 

 account of the metamorphoses, 

 first given by Boisduval, is 

 erroneous. The larva, it ap- 

 pears, resembles in general 



form that of Coronidia, and Fig- 206.— Abdomen of Chrysiridia mada- 



. „ . . . gascariensis. A, Horizontal section show- 



has Sixteen teet ; it IS, hOW- ing the lower part of the male abdomen : 



ever, armed with long, Spatu- *• first segment ; 2. spiracle of second 



. . 1 segment ; 4-8, posterior segments. B, 



late black hairs ; it changes to the abdomen seen from the side, with the 



a pupa in a COCOOll of Open segments numbered. The section is that 



1 x * 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 West wood, 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 Coiujr. Intermit. Zool. ii. 1892, pL 2, p. 180. 



