MICROLEPIDOPTERA OP NEW GUINEA 
89 
XYLORYCTIDAE 
This extensive family is widely distributed also outside Australia, but 
Cry ptophasa Me Leay, and allies, comprising moths of conspicuously large 
and even gigantic size, are as characteristic for the fauna of that region 
as is Kanguru. Not less than 37 species of Cryptophasa occur in New 
Guinea and the Bismark Islands, but they are all endemic, except one 
(C. mesotoma Meyrick which is also recorded from the Moluccas) and are 
not known from the Australian continent. 
Certain species, as C. pseudograrnma Meyrick and C. curialis Meyrick 
are locally common and come in large numbers to lamp traps. Dr Toxopeus 
informed us that when caught these large insects behave in the way of a 
clothes moth and try to escape by quickly crawling around. When taken in 
the hand they scratch the collector with their strong thorny legs. 
Nothing is known about the biology of the Papuan species, but most 
likely it will appear to be the same as in the allied Australian ones. The 
larvae of certain species in that country are known to bore tunnels in 
living trees, in which they bring leaves of their lood plant and where they 
take refuge in daytime; after having closed the entrance ol the tunnel 
with a barricade of silk they consume the leaves in peace. 
The genus owes its name to this remarkable biology {y.Qvnxog = con- 
cealed, yayoi ; = eating), “Cryptophasa” being a misprint for “Crypto- 
phaga”. The name has been emendated by Meyrick in 1890, but the 
emendation has been abandoned again, the generic name Cryptophaga 
being preoccupied for a genus in the Coleoptera. 
Several genera of the Xyloryetidae, viz. Cryptophasa, Paralecta, and 
others, seem to be rather arbitrary; they show considerable variation as 
to the neuration, the structure of the male antennae and the length of the 
terminal segment of the labial palpi, all characteristics, which, otherwise, 
are of great taxonomic importance. This makes the discrimination of the 
genera very difficult at times, as can be seen from the following key, which 
is compiled to our best knowledge, but appears to us rather unsatis- 
factory. It is probable, that future study will reveal these variations in 
more genera, and consequently will enable us to re-diagnose them on a 
better and more natural basis. Our present knowledge obliges us to 
maintain not less than some 112 genera, many of which are based on a 
single species only. 
The abdominal tergites in the two sexes are clothed with moderate or 
fine bristles which are arranged in transverse rows over posterior half of 
the tergites or along their posterior margins, and are directed caudad. 
These bristles are orange-coppery coloured, show through scale clothing 
and appear like more or less distinct transverse coppery or orange bands. 
Outside the Xyloryetidae such bristles are richly developed in the 
Schreckensteiniidae, and are also known in the Oecophoridae (Clarke), the 
