160 



William T. M. Forbes 



Family 13. OPOSTEGID^I 



(Tineida?, in part) 



Head covered with large, smooth scales, but with a strong tuft of long 

 hair between the antenna; palpi small, without bristles; maxillary 

 palpi small, but quite distinctly folded, tongue very small; antennae 

 short, stout ; with a large eye-cap, which is covered by regularly imbri- 

 cated scales, and ribbed on the inner side. Body small; middle and 

 hind tibia? with long, "stiff bristles. Shaft of antennas with a single 

 whorl of scales to a segment. Fore wing in the American species with 

 no branched veins (fig. 113) ; with four or five simple ones tending to 

 join at base, only the one through the middle of the wing distinctly 

 tubular. Aculea? present but abnormal, pointing costad; arranged in 

 regular rows, and confined to a small area about the base of wing. 

 Hind wing half as wide as fore wing, lanceolate; Sc and Cu simple, 



with a single, three-branched vein 

 between them ; frenulum a diffuse 

 tuft of bristles, somewhat concen- 

 trated in male, of a lower type 

 than is elsewhere known in the 

 Frenata\ 



Larva extremely slender, cylin- 

 drical, with the seta? apparently 

 arranged in regular circles about 

 the body ; legs wholly absent. Head 

 flattened, with thickened lateral 

 keels on the epicrania ; seta? re- 

 duced. Front wider at back. Ocellus single, obsolete. Mouth parts 

 small and reduced ; labrum modified and retracted into a notch in the 

 clypeus, mandible thin, but of biting type, with a membranous process. 

 Dorsal part of head not extending far into thorax, but extended by a 

 couple of heavy tendons ; ventral side largely membranous, hypostoma 

 rudimentary. 



The larva? mine in bast ; the only known European species in flower- 

 stalks of Caltha, 0. cdbogallen'eUa in Ribes. The pupa has not been 

 studied. 



The family is small, and almost entirely Oriental, where a couple of 

 other genera occur, as well as Opostega. The relationships are quite 

 obscure, but the group seems to represent, as near as anything, the point 

 of origin of the Lyonetiida? from the common Tineoid stem ; as it shows 

 characters that appear also in the Tineida?. Xepticulida?, Psychida? and 

 Lyonetiida?. The family Oinophilida? is hardly distinct, and some genera 

 of the latter show a nearly complete, normal venation ; the genus 

 Opogona (fig. 114) is about halfway between the two families. 



Figs. 113-114. 

 113, Opostegid^, Opostega salaciella 

 (Europe), venation; 114, Oindphilid.e, 

 Opogona aurisquamosa (Hawaii), vena- 

 tion 



