ACONTIAN^. 455 



Subfamily ACONTIANiE. 



Proboscis almost always fully developed, rarely aborted and non- 

 functional ; palpi usually long and upturned, the 3rd joint sometimes 

 very long and dilated at extremity, sometimes oblique or porrect and 

 fringed with hair above, in Topadesa downcurved and rostriform ; 

 frons almost always smooth, in Leucoplianera with a pointed 

 prominence ; eyes large, round, naked and without cilia from their 

 margins ; antennse usually ciliated, often somewhat laminate and 

 almost simple, rarely pectinated ; head and thorax usually clothed 

 almost entirely with scales, sometimes clothed with hair only, 

 usually without crests or with small crests on pro- and metathorax, 

 sometimes with ridge-like dorsal crest ; tibiae without spines or 

 claws, in Carea and Careades the males of most of the species have 

 the hind tibiae very short with the spurs more or less aborted, the 

 1st joint of tarsus very long, dilated and fringed with hair ; abdomen 

 usually with one or two crests at base, rarely with a dorsal series 

 of crests or without crests. Fore wing usually broad and triangular, 

 the termen curved or straight, often with the termen angled or 

 excurved at middle and excised below apex or towards tornus, 

 the inner margin sometimes with scale-teeth at middle or tornus ; 

 vein 1 weak and not anastomosing with lb ; 1 c absent ; 2 from 

 middle of cell ; Sand 5 from near lower angle, or 3 from well 

 before angle ; 6 from or from below upper angle, rarely from the 

 areole ; 9 usually from 10 anastomosing with 8 to form the areole 

 which is often long and narrow, or both 9 and 10 anastomosing 

 with 7, 8 to form a minute areole, or the areole obsolete and veins 

 7, 8, 9 or 7, 8, 9, 10 stalked, or 8, 9, 10 stalked and vein 7 from 

 the cell ; vein 11 from the cell. Hind wing with the termen 

 usually evenly curved, sometimes excurved at middle and excised 

 towards tornus ; veins 1 a and 1 b present, 1 c absent ; 3, 4 from 

 angle of cell or stalked ; 5 fully developed, usually from or from 

 just above angle of cell, rarely stalked with 3, 4 or from near middle 

 of discocellulars, vei'js 3, 4 sometimes coincident ; 6, 7 from upper 

 angle of cell or shortly stalked ; 8 usually anastomosing with the 

 cell near base only, but often to middle. 



The fore wing of male has a strong bar-shaped retinaculum, but 

 in Earias, Tyana, HylopJiila bicolorana, Ariolica triangulifera, 

 Cerala, Tojxidesa and Gahala this has become aborted and is re- 

 placed by a tuft of hair from below median nervure ; the wing is 

 smoothly scaled except in Cerala, which has slight tufts of raised 

 scales at middle and end of cell. 



The Larvae have all the prolegs present and are sparsely clothed 

 with hair and form a boat-shaped cocoon of silk with an angular 

 projection in front on dorsum spun on a twig, except in Acontia, 

 Leocijma, and ])roheih\j Armactica , in which the larvae are semilooping 



