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MICBOLEPID OPTEBA OF NEW GUINEA 
define the family, as far back as 1881, regarded the absent vein as vein 5 
(M 2 ), and maintained this view in his “Revision of' the Australian 
Tortricina” in 1910. But in 1922, in his study of this family in the Genera 
Insectorum he indicated the permanently lacking vein as vein 4 (M 3 ), 
without giving an explanation as to what caused this change of opinion, 
and stated that veins 3 and 5 can be separate, approximated or stalked. 
Perhaps the termination of the vein which follows upon vein 3 in the 
hind wing, high up on the termen, brought him to this conclusion. When 
describing the genus Commatarcha in 1935 he stated, on the contrary, that 
veins 3 and 4 in hind wing are stalked and that it is again vein 5 which 
is absent in that genus. 
We are inclined to share the original opinion of Meybick, that the hind 
wing in this family permanently lacks vein 5, not 4, on the ground of the 
consideration that the remaining veins are often stalked and that these 
must therefore be 3 and 4, not 3 and 5, as the occurrence of 3 and 4 
originating from a common stalk is very common in Microlepidoptera. 
The following vein in the hind wing of Carposinidae which is apt to 
reduction, is vein 6 (M x ). The fact that the remaining, not reduced, vein 
invariably terminates in the apex of the hind wing, confirms the surmise 
that this must be vein 7 (Rs), even when this vein originates below the 
upper angle of cell, and that the lacking vein is vein 6 indeed. 
The infrequent occurrence of a developed vein 6 in the hind wing must 
be regarded as an archaic character, as was put forward by Meybick. 
However, this character is not absolutely reliable, as in the extensive 
genus Meridarchis Zelleb, 1867, this vein occurs in different stages of 
development: from fully developed to entirely obliterate, as is set forth 
below under remarks on this genus. Obviously the old genus Meridarchis 
reflects in the development of its species the course of the development 
of the genera of the entire family Carposinidae, in the same way as does 
Schoenotenes in the family Schoenotenidae. 
The family represents a very natural group, showing a great uniformity 
of facies. About three common patterns of markings prevail throughout 
the species, often independently of the genus to which these belong: 
(1) a large median costal trapezoid spot and a well-defined basal patch; 
(2) some six discal dots with a small dot on base of costa and one above 
dorsum beyond base; (3) evenly suffused wing with a transverse, light 
comma-shaped mark on closing vein. The tenacity of quite different 
species to one of these three patterns is often confusing ; thus a Carposina 
species as well as a Meridarchis can bear the first pattern of markings 
mentioned; a Meridarchis, as well as a Heterogymna, the second; and a 
Heterogymna (e.g. H. xenochroma spec, nov.), as well as a Bondia, the 
third pattern, etc. 
The male genitalia of the New Zealand Carposina species have been 
described and figured by Philpott {Trans. N. Zeal. Inst., vol. 59, 
pp. 476 — 477, figs. 1 — 11, 1929). His figures clearly show the type of the 
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