426 LEPIDOPTERA chap. 



mode of respiration is unknown. A great deal has been written 

 about these Insects, but really very little is known. They are 

 abundant, though local in many parts of IS^'orth and Central 

 Europe ; some of the females have, as we have said, abbreviated 

 wings, but how many species there are, and whether the modifica- 

 tions existing in the development of the wings are constant in 

 one species or locality, are unknown as yet. 



Fam. 42. Pterophoridae ^ (Flume-moths). — Elegant Insects 

 of small size, usually with the wings divided (after the fashion of 

 a hand into fingers) so as to form feathers : the extent of this 

 division is diverse, but the hind wings are more completely divided 

 than the front, which indeed are sometunes almost entire. The 

 group is placed by Meyrick in his Pyralidina, but there are many 

 entomologists who look on it as distinct. It consists of two 

 sub - families, Agdistinae and Pterophorinae, that have been 

 treated as families l^y many entomologists. The Agdistinae 

 (of which we have a British representative of the only genus 

 Agdistes) have the wings undivided. Pterophorinae have the 

 hind wings trifid or (rarely) quadrifid, the front wings bifid or 

 (rarely) trifid. The larvae of the Pterophorinae are different 

 from those of Pyralidae, being slow in movement and of heavy 

 form, covered with hair and living exposed on leaves ; the pupae 

 are highly remarkable, being soft, coloured somewhat like the 

 larvae, and also hairy like the larvae, and are attached somewhat 

 after the manner of butterfly- pupae by the cremaster : but 

 in some cases there is a slight cocoon. There is, however, 

 much variety in the larval and pupal habits of the Ptero- 

 phoridae, many having habits of concealment of divers kinds. 

 "We have thirty species of these lovely Plume-moths in Britain. 

 The family is widely distributed, and will probably prove 

 numerous in species when the small and delicate Insects existing 

 in the tropics are more appreciated by collectors. 



Fam. 43. Alucitidae (Orneodidae of Meyrick and others). — 

 The genus Ahwita includes the only moths that have the front 

 and hind wings divided each into six feathers. Species of it, 

 though not numerous, occur in various regions. The larva and 

 pupa are less anomalous than those of the Pterophoridae, though 

 tlie imago is more anomalous. The caterpillar of our British A. 

 polydactyla feeds on the flower -buds of honey-suckle, and forms a 



' Classification ; Meyrick, Tr. ent. Soc. London, 1886, p. 1. 



