MICROLEPID OPTERA OP NEW GUINEA 
63 
Rattan Camp, 1200 m, March 3, 1939. One specimen. Very near to 
B. tesserata Meyrick. 
COSMOPTERIGIDAE 
According to Meyrick this rich family of small, elegant species is to be 
regarded as the nearest related family of the Gelechiidae which statement 
seems to us to be rather debatable. The genitalia of the Cosmopterygidae 
are peculiar, and not similar to those in the Gelechiidae. The Cosmoptery- 
gidae rather seem to be a strongly specialized off-shoot of the Gelechioid 
group, with no direct correlation with the modern representatives of the 
Gelechiidae. They form a much more uniform group. Most species may 
easily be recognised by the shape, and the regular neuration of the hind 
wing. 
The male genitalia are peculiar. The tegumen and the valvae are very 
tightly connected at the base. The sacculi of the valvae are more or less 
separated and sometimes tightly connected with each other, so as to form 
an unpaired median plate, situated ventrally of the valvae proper. The 
right valva often possesses a long slender rising process, which is more or 
less clavate, and bristly at the apex. This process is entirely absent on the 
left valva. 
The separate interconnected sacculi appear also in the family Scaeoso- 
pliidae. We are inclined to believe that this family is correlated with the 
present, rather than a modified offshoot of the Oeeophorid stock, as is 
assumed by Meyrick. Furthermore there may be a connection between the 
Cosmopterigidae and the Metachandidae (genitalia of which are un- 
known at present) through the peculiar new genus Neachandella, 
described below. 
Key to the Papuan genera of the Cosmopterigidae 
1. Fore wing with vein 6 separate 2 
Fore wing with vein 6 stalked with 7 or 8, sometimes also with 5, or vein 6 
is absent 5 
2. Antenna witli flagellum sinuate, swollen above the basal segment 
• ■ ■ Olaphyristis Meyrick 
Antenna normal 3 
3. Fore wing with veins 8 and 9 out of 7 Melanesthes gen. nov. 
Fore wing with vein 9 separate 4 
4. Fore wing with transverse vein and veins 6, 7 and 8 developed. No pleural 
pencils on the thorax in male Limnaecia Stainton (section 2) 
Fore wing with transverse vein betw'een veins 5 — 9 and basal portions of veins 
6, 7 and 8 obliterate, only marginal parts of the last mentioned veins being 
perceptible; long expansible hair-pencils originating from metapleurae in male, 
directed caudad Limnaecia Stainton (section 1) 
5. Fore wing with veins 5 and 8 absent, 6 and 7 stalked; hind wing with veins 4 
and 5 connate Dynatophysis gen. nov. 
Not thus 6 
