94 
ALCIDIS. By Dr. A. Seitz. 
The connections with the Geometrids are quite undoubtable now, since the larvae of several genera have 
been discovered and found to have 16 feet. It is just the most Geometrid-like imagines — those of the genus 
Epiplema — that are yielded from scantily haired small larvae with 8 prolegs and the claspers distantly 
separated from the last prolegs; and the second group, the Microniinae resembling the Urapterygidae, the larvae 
of which are apparently still unknown, prove to be anatomically quite dissimilar to the large Geometrids and 
more closely allied to the Alcidis. 
The geographical range of the group of Uraniidae is just as amazing as their systematic position. Very 
close relatives, such as Chrysiridia and Urania , are almost antipodes, the former being neotropical, the latter 
Eastern Ethiopians; whereas the utterly opposed Alcidis and Nyctalemon live together, just like the Papilionid- 
like Urania do with the bark-brown moths Sematura. Thus the faunistic conditions neither provide us with 
any hint for the phylogenetic classification of the various groups; it only appears in general that the more 
homogeneous and universally distributed Epipleminae represent an ancient group, whereas the magnificently 
glistening heliophile insects, the Urania and Chrysiridia, entirely make the impression of products of the latest 
period of creation. 
Hence the insignificant general marks of the heterogeneous groups are confined to the following: 
antennae behind the middle distinctly though gradually thickened; the neuration of most of the genera must 
be called rather primitive than specialized, but it may also be reduced to the open cell of the wings (Alcidis). 
In nearly all the genera the hindwing is tailed, lobate or angular, often with several lobately projecting notches. 
The total number of Uraniidae known up to this day, according to the old scheme, amounts to about 
750 forms. The Indo-Australian region and the American region partake of this number in about the same 
shares; the Ethiopian region, however, exhibiting the most beautiful forms, contains a much smaller number; 
from North America only 4 species have been reported, whilst in the palaearctic region they occur only at the 
south-eastern frontier and in Europe they are altogether absent. — The Epipleminae having been eliminated 
from the family and forming a family of their own, there remain hardly 100 species in the restricted family. 
Subfamily: Uraniinae. 
This subfamily is composed of the large genera of the family not exhibiting the Geometrid type. They 
are divided into the blackish-green genera Urania (America), Chrysiridia (Africa), and Alcidis (Indo-Australia), 
being diurnal insects: from these the dark brown nocturnal insects: Nyctalemon (Indo-Australia), Coronidia and 
Sematura etc. (America), have been separated. The imagines have broad wings, the broad-tailed hindwings 
show long, entirely white fringes. — Little is known of the larvae; they are fat yellowish-brown insects with 
dark markings and 16 feet, on the dorsum there are soft bristles. Pupa of the less known forms on the ground 
in a cocoon which is inside moistened with saliva. 
1. Genus: Alcidis Him. 
Rather large lepidoptera with broad soft wings, the hindwings with long, mostly white, delicate fringes. 
The long antennae begin to swell up slightly already in the middle, but decrease again towards the end which 
is mostly recurved in a bow. Head rather large, with a broad frons, palpi upright with a needle-shaped 3rd 
joint. Legs strong, but short. Wings with a very short cell which in the forewing is hardly more than % the 
length of the costa, but the delimitation of the cell is difficult to ascertain owing to the cross-vein always being 
nearly quite atrophous. Fore wing above black with a deep dark bluish-green gloss and a median lustrous blue 
transverse band through the centre and often yet a narrower stripe before the apical portion; beneath the 
fore wing is light blue, sometimes Avitli a somewhat greenish lustre, and with black bands; hindwing likewise 
black and light blue. — Larva pale yellowish-brown, marked black, stout and plump, with small feeble bristles 
on tiny tubercles. Pupa in a cocoon on the ground. The imagines fly by day in the sunshine in the beds of 
rivulets and around the tops of trees; they are mostly common at their habitat and are quite unmistakably 
copied in New Guinea and Aru by a Papilio (laglaizei , Vol. IX, p. 46). — Type of the genus: A. orontes Cl. 
orontes. A. orontes Cl. (= argyrios Gmel., orontiaria Him.) (71 b). The best known and frequently figured species 
distributed on the Southern Moluccas across New Guinea to North Australia. The grey bands above are rather 
narrow, almost as in liris (71 c), but those in the forewing are more oblique, already beginning behind the basal 
third of the costa and extending close before the anal angle. The fringe forms narrow small white crescents 
tristis. between the ends of the veins on the hindwing. At some places rather common. — ab. tristis Pfeiff. (71 b). In 
contrast with passavanti the metallic green band is reduced here; the bands of the forewing are distinctly 
removed proximad, of the posterior band only traces are left. The band of the hindwing is strongly crossed 
