LIMACODIDAE. General Topics. By A. Seitz. 
1103 
17. Family: Limacodidae. 
In Vol. XIV, p. 447, where the denomination of the family was already largely dealt with, it was also 
pointed out that these most abnormal lepidoptera represent a phylogenetically old family. At any rate, they 
are quite homogeneous in the structure of the body, and we know but few other families exhibiting such a 
great homogeneity even in quite remote continents. Considering the entire absence of a proboscis together 
with the often monstrously developed palpi, the origin of the family presumably dates back to the times when 
the phanerogamic plants secreting honey did not yet play any part in the vegetation of the earth, for the Lima¬ 
codidae have no ecological relations whatever to melliferous blossoms. 
Another fact in favour of this phylogenetic age is their distribution over the earth. In Australia being 
a most ancient part of our globe they form an important part of the lepidopteral fauna and are especially dis¬ 
tinguished by a relatively great number of forms as well as by large-sized representatives. By the predilection 
of many species for the Eucalyptus which is most widely distributed in Australia they appear to be especially 
adapted to that continent; but it is a remarkable fact that they are entirely absent in New Zealand which 
country, however, is at any rate very poorly supplied with Macrolepidoptera. On the other hand, their number 
is rather small in the neotropical regions which are so abundant in modern lepidoptera, even if we consider 
that thorough anatomical examinations will yield quite an increase of other Tropical-American species be¬ 
longing to this family. There are about 20 species occurring in the boreal parts of America, and 35 inclusive of 
its southern confines, and even as many as 50 species, if all the forms that have not yet been thoroughly ex¬ 
amined prove to be distinct species. In contrast with this relatively large number, the whole neotropical region 
of America does not even harbour 300 well distinguished forms. North America is also well supplied with species 
compared with Europe where only 3 species occur which are besides very inconspicuous in the palaearctic lepi¬ 
dopteral fauna. This share of Europe is extraordinarily small considering the total number of about 1000 Lima- 
codid species. 
The general characters have already been largely dealt with in the Volumes 2, 10 and 14. We merely 
remind the reader of the most distinctive marks characterizing the family: the roundish shapes of the body 
in all the stages, the creeping sole of the larvae which are frequently provided with nettle-organs, the almost 
invariably oviform cocoon, the strange metamorphosis of the larva evinced by the stage of a preliminary pupa, 
the emergence of the imago after detaching a lid-shaped plug from the paper-like web. The anatomical details 
are specially mentioned in each of the genera. 
Considering the very old age of the family, the extraordinary homogeneousness of all the Limacodidae 
known to this day is rather striking. Nowhere, not even in America which otherwise exhibits such multifarious 
shapes, are we met with extravagantly developed forms of the imagines, whereas the larvae exhibit various 
peculiarities for protective reasons. We have frequently pointed out the gall-like exterior of numerous Limacodid 
larvae which often cling to the leaves or stalks of the food-plant like a tumour or a parasitic formation, and 
quite a number of American Limacodid larvae show even a modification of this adaptation to a fruit or gall 
by their strikingly copying a nibbled place on this formation: the larva of Prolimacodes scaplia from North 
America, for instance, represents a green fruit from which a piece has been bitten out above, so that the red 
flesh of the fruit appears. In a very similar way the larva of Tortricidia testacea Pack, exhibits a red dorsal 
spot looking like the red sap emanating from a nibbled green berry. The strangest phenomenon, however, not 
only of all the lepidoptera but almost of the Avhole animal kingdom, is the female imago of Phobetron hipparchia 
Or. in its repose, exhibiting small roundish yellow spots on the reddish ground of the forewing and quite similar 
small round hair-pads on the feet and the articulations of the legs. The imago settles for its repose on the sur¬ 
face of a green leaf in such a way that it spreads the very long legs of one side far out and, in a way, hangs 
on them, whilst it draws in those of the other side so that the yellow articular tufts join the orange spots on 
