HETEROCERA ZYGAENIDAE 



391 



are free, and the abdomen has much power of movement ; there 

 is no eye-collar; the antennae, hind legs, and proboscis -tips 

 stretch backwards as far as the fifth or sixth abdominal seo- 

 ment, the tips being quite free ; on the dorsal plates of the 

 abdomen there are rows of minute elevations reminding one of 

 the teeth existing in pupae that li^'e in stems or galleries. This 

 is altogether a peculiar pupa ; it lives closely enclosed in a small 

 hard cocoon, and its great capacity for movement is perhaps con- 

 nected with the fact that the pupa itself manages to force its 

 way through the cocoon in anticipation of the emergence of the 

 moth. This cocoon is fastened tightly to a stem, and is covered 

 with a substance that gives it a glazed appearance. The larvae 

 are objects of a baggy nature, with inferior coloration, consisting 

 of large dark blotches on a light ground, and without any 

 remarkable development of their somewhat feeble system of 

 hairs. Numerous small moths from the tropics are assigned 

 to the family ; they are most of them conspicuously marked 

 and colou.red, and like our Burnets are probably diurnal. 



The family Chalcosiidae is reduced by Hampson to the 

 position of a sub-family of Zygaenidae. It consists of a large 

 variety of diurnal moths of varied and brilliant colours, with an 

 expanse of wing large in 

 comparison with the typi- 

 cal Zygaenae, and with 

 the antennae pectinate or 

 flabellate to the tip. Some 

 of these Insects (which are 

 as conspicuous as possible 

 in appearance, at any rate _ ,„, _ , , , ^: „,. 



'■^ . •' Fig. 195. — nampsnnm pulchernma. Wings on 



ni a cabinet, the East right side cletai;lied and denuded to show 



Indian CadpUseS moorei i^ervuration. India. (After Swinlioe.) 



e.g.) are considered to be destitute of any special " protection." 

 Histia is a genus of remarkable cruciform moths, of a mixture 

 of black and metallic colours, with carmine - tinted bodies. 

 Hampsonia pulcherrima (East India) is a curious moth of butter- 

 fly form and coloration, red and black with yellow patches, and 

 with some of the nervules distorted, as if they had been forced 

 apart in certain spots in order to accommodate these patches. 



Two or three hundred species of Chalcosiidae are recorded. 

 They are specially characteristic of the Indo-Malayan region. 



