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VI. On the Genera and Species of the Lepidopterous Subfamily Ophiderine inhabiting 
the Indian Region. By ¥. Moorz, F.Z.S. ete. 
Received January 19th, read January 20th, 1880. 
[Puates XII.-XIV.] 
THE genus Ophideres was first characterized in 1832, in the ‘Voyage de l’Astrolabe’ 
(“ Entom.” p. 245), by Dr. Boisduval, who described a single species from Brazil under 
the name of O. princeps. In Guérin’s ‘ Iconogr. Régn. Anim.’ (“ Ins.” pl. Ixxxix. f. 1), he 
further figured a Madagascar species as O. imperator, which he redescribed and figured 
(the male) in 1833, in the ‘ Faune Entom. Madagasc. Bourb. et Maur.’ p. 99, pl. xiv. 
fig. 5. 
In 1852 M. Guenée, in the ‘Spec. Gén. des Lép. Noctuelites, iii. p. 109, recharac- 
terized the genus, including in it and describing all the then known species of the 
group. This arrangement was followed by Mr. Walker in 1857, in the British-Museum 
‘Catalogue of Lepidoptera Heterocera,’ and has been continued by all subsequent 
writers. 
Having made a recent examination of the several species of this interesting group 
of Moths, I submit the result in the following pages, treating therein, however, only of 
the species of the Indian Region. The species being much diversified in the form of 
the external outline of the fore wings, and also in the shape of the terminal joint of the 
palpi, as well as exhibiting a dissimilarity in the pattern of markings in the sexes, I have 
found it necessary to group them under various genera, and to restrict the genus 
Ophideres to its type, namely O. princeps. Of six of the species described, figures are 
here given of the larva and pupa, copied from original drawings made in India by 
Mr. A. Grote, Sir W. Elliot, and Mr. S. N. Ward, and from others made in Java by 
the late Dr. Horsfield. 
This group of Moths has hitherto been placed by entomologists between the families 
Catocalidze and Erebide; they have, however, closer affinity to the Ophiuside, their 
larve also agreeing better with those of the latter in form. The genus Lagoptera is 
very closely allied to them. I therefore place them, together with the subfamily 
Phyllodine, between the Bendide (of which family Hulodes caranea is a well-known 
insect) and the Ophiuside. 
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