118 
MICROLEPIDOPTERA OF NEW GUINEA 
Monopis Hubner, 1826 
Monopis Hubner, 1826, Vera. bek. Schmett., p. 401. Walsingham, Catal. Lep. 
Het. Mus. Oxon., p. 577, 1900. Spuler, Schmett. Eur., vol. 2, p. 463, fig. 215, 1910. 
Meyrick, Rev. Handb., p. 821, 1928. Fletcher, Mem. Agric. Ind., Ent., vol. 11, 
p. 143, 1929. Pierce, Oenit. Brit. Tin., pp. 96, 97, pi. 59, 1935. 
Blabopkanes Zeller, 1852, Linn. Ent., vol. 6, p. 100. Meyrick, Proc. Linn. 
Soc. N. S. Wales, vol. 8, pp. 526-527, 1892. 
Hyalospila Herrich-Schaffer, 1853, Schmett. Eur., vol. 6, Microl., p. v, pi. 10, 
fig. 14. Etc. 
Rlutia Walker, 1864, List Lep. Het. Brit. Mus., vol. 29, p. 818. Etc. 
Eusynopa Lower, 1903, Trans. Roy. Soc. S. Austral., vol. 28, p. 237. Etc. 
The following four species are represented by female specimens only. 
It was a great surprise to find the abdomina- of all the examined specimens 
stuffed with developed larvae! Apparently we stumbled — quite inciden- 
tally — upon a case of viviparity. 
The classical observation of the process of deposition of living larvae in 
a Monopis species, viz., M. meliorella Walker, was made by Scott in 
Australia long ago (Trans. Ent. Soc. N. S. Wales, vol. 1, p. 33, pi. 4, 1863). 
Nobody saw it again since. The anatomy of the female genital apparatus 
■was studied recently and discussed elborately in another place (Diakonoff, 
Trans. IXth Intern. Congr. Entom., vol. 1, pp. 91 — 96, 1952). It wall be 
sufficient now to make the following remarks. Ivusnezov (1910) once found 
a developed larva in a dilatation of the oviduct in certain Pieridae of boreal 
an alpine regions. He ascribed this phenomenon to a possible ovo-vivi- 
parity, and surmised that it might be a useful adaptation of the species 
concerned to the short summer in those barren regions. The present case 
seems to be that of true ovo-viviparity. Whatever its significance is for the 
tropical species in question, it must be something else than suggested by 
Ivusnezov. 
The material of Monopis concerned was collected in lamp traps and 
the insects were killed at once in bottles with potassium cyanide where they 
remained for several hours. It is highly improbable that mature eggs 
inside the insects would outlive this treatment. Afterwards the insects 
were transferred to paper triangles and at once stored in tins equipped 
with naphthaline, and also with quicklime, in order to keep the contents 
entirely dry. In case the eggs did outlive the treatment in killing bottles, 
their further development under these conditions would be impossible. 
Therefore we must accept that developed larvae were present inside the 
abdomen of the mother insect at the time of its capture. 
The shape of the female genitalia supports our surmise of viviparity. 
The ovipositor is of a common tineid type, i.e., slender and extensile, but 
bears distinct marks of reduction, though not equally far proceeded in all 
the species concerned. It is still rather long in M. hypochrysa, but with 
lobes devoid of the usual sensile bristles which shows the decadent nature 
of this organ. The same may be the case in M. cuspidigera in which, 
