132 BRITISH LEPIDOPTEEA. 



Ovum : Spherical, or where ovoid the ends are alike ; opaque ; covered with a 

 snow-like coating ; laid externally (not in the substance of leaves). 



Larva : Short, square, and angular, with ten rows of globular appendages, 

 and eight pairs of abdominal legs of special structure ; an anal sucker ; two setae on 

 last segment (possibly cerci) ; long antennae ; feeding exposed (i.e., not under a web) 

 on moss. 



Pupa : (Probably not unlike a Nepticiila, and in a cocoon above ground. Only 

 the head and antenna-piece seen). 



Imago: Six-jointed maxillary palpi, used as feeding-hands; well-developed, 

 serviceable jaws; ovipositor simple, tubular, of three pieces ; last abdominal seg- 

 ment the 'seventh. 



Packard also summarises the characters of the Micropterygides, 

 which, as we have already stated, he erects into a suborder, called 

 Lepidoptera-laciniata or Proto-Lepidoptera, equal in value to the 

 whole of the rest of Lepidoptera, called Lepidoptera-haustellata, as 

 follows : — 



I. Imago : Maxilla, with a well-developed lacinia and galea, arising, as in mandi- 

 bulate insects, from a definite stipes and cardo ; the galeae not elongated, nor united 

 and differentiated into a haustellum, each being separate from its fellow. The 

 maxillary palpi enormous, six-jointed ; mandibles large, scarcely vestigial, with a 

 broad-toothed cutting edge, and with three apparently functional hinge processes 

 at the base, as usual in mandibulate insects. Hypopharynx well developed, some- 

 what as in Diptera and Hymenoptera. The second maxillae divided into a mala 

 exterior and mala interior, recalling those of mandibulate insects ; palpi three- 

 jointed. Thorax with prothorax very much reduced ; metathorax very large, with 

 the two halves of the scutum widely separate. Neuration highly generalised ; 

 both fore- and hind-wings with tbe internal lobe or jugum, as in Trichoptera ; 

 nervures as in Micropteryx {i.e., Eriocrania, Zell.), and showing no notable dis- 

 tinction compared with those of that genus ; scales generalised ; fine scattered setae 

 present on costal edge and on the nervures ; abdomen elongated, with the male 

 genital armature neuropteroid, exserted ; the dorsal, lateral and sternal appendages 

 very large. 



II. Pupa : Libera (?). 



III. Larva: Highly modified in form, compared with that of Micropteryx (i.e., 

 Eriocrania, Zell.), with large four-jointed antennae and very large three-jointed 

 maxillary palpi ; no spinneret (?) ; no abdominal prolegs, their place supplied 

 by a pair of tubercles ending in a curved spine on abdominal segments 1 — 8 ; a 

 sternal sucker at the end of the body. 



IV. Egg : Spherical. 



Meyrick diagnoses the imago of Micropteryx (Eriocephala) as follows : 

 Mandibles developed. No tongue. Labial palpi obsolete. Posterior 

 tibiae with spurs placed in groups of bristles. Fore-wings : nervure 7 to 

 costa, 11 connected by bar with 12, 12 giving rise to an additional 

 nervure (13) about middle. Hind-wings as fore-wings, but 13 usually 

 absent (Handbook, etc., p. 805). 



The taxonomic importance of this group is so great that it must 

 be our excuse if we enter somewhat in detail into the characters which 

 it presents. We have already said that for our knowledge of the egg, 

 larval and pupal states, we are indebted entirely to Chapman, whilst 

 we owe our knowledge of the imaginal mouth-parts (which has given 

 so much material for study) mainly to Walter, Chapman having 

 worked out some few details in this direction independently. 



With regard to the bearings of the discoveries of these observers on 

 the taxonomy of the Lepidoptera, Packard says : " The presence of two 

 maxillary lobes, homologous with the galea and lacinia of the 

 Mecoptera (Panorpidae) and Neuroptera (Corydalus, Myrmeleon) as 

 well as the lower orders, Dermaptera, Orthoptera, Coleoptera, etc., in 

 what in other important respects also is the "lowest" or most 



* Bombycine Moths of America, p. 61, 



