LYMANTRIIDAE, General Topics. By Dr. A. Seitz. 
291 
5. Family: Lymantriidae. 
The Indo-Australian Lymantriids are confined to few colours in a still more monotonous way as is 
already the case in the palearctic ones, and a white and yellow ground-colour, marked or shaded grey, or also 
entirely white, is preponderant as in no other family. Almost one fifth of all the Indian Lymantriids are nearly 
unicolorously yellow or monotonous, and destitute of almost all variegated colours whatever, such as red, blue, 
or grey. Some species, after their death, change the colour of the wings, which on the saps of the body drying 
up, turns from a delicate whitish green into a dirty white. 
The separation of the Lymantriids from the neighbouring families is rather difficult. Thus large divisions, 
such as the Anthelinae, exhibit such great alliances to the Lasiocampidae that they might also be added to this 
group. The gigantic Chalepteryx has at first been inserted in the Lasiocampids, then in the Saturniids, and 
at last in the Lymantriids. The Thaumetopoeai, formerly inserted in the Lymantriids, have later on been regarded 
as too different and been separated as a family of their own. The same is the case now with the Ratarda and 
Diversosexus. On the whole each author will follow his own opinion as to the definition of a family, and he 
will adjust his view to certain characteristic marks, according to his considering the uniting or the separating 
marks to be more important. Discussions hereof are practically of secondary importance. 
The total number of the Lymantriids known amounts to much more than a thousand, if we include 
the Anthela, Thaumetopoea etc. Staudenger and Rebel count little more than 100 palearctic forms, though 
to the exclusion of large palearctic countries in Eastern and Central Asia, such as Tibet, Japan, Korea etc; 
in our Vol. II, however, about 300 forms of the palearctic region are known, of which, however, many originate 
from the districts bordering on India and mainly belong to the Indo-Australian range. Beside a considerable 
part of forms already dealt with in the palearctic part (Vol. II), the Indo-Australian region is inhabited by 
about 500 more forms mostly peculiar of it and only for the smallest part common to Africa. Africa, however, 
itself and particularly the Island of Madagascar, must feed a great number of Lymantriids, for although this 
very group is as yet little known from Africa, yet Kirby enumerates more than 150 species, almost as many 
as have been made known from India, which has been well explored, inclusive of the Himalayan countries 
and of Ceylon. Already to-day, the number of African forms known of the family of the Lymantriids has 
extraordinarily increased, and the group of the Ethiopean region on having been more explored, will probably 
even excel India proper in number. 
In contrast with them America is rather void of Lymantriids. From the whole of that continent scarcely 
more than 100 species are known, thus only one third of the species of the palearctic region in conjunction with 
the whole enormous district of North America, has only about 20 to 30 forms. This is chiefly due to the entire 
absence of the multiform genera such as Euproctis , Anthela etc. in the western continent , and neither the numerous 
genus of the Lymantria itself would be represented there, if it had not been introduced by careless collectors. 
It is very probable that the larvae frequently decorated with remarkable, sometimes even monstrous 
hair-pencils and-brushes are protected against many enemies. The inflammatory effect of the hairs in some 
species ( Porthesia , Euproctis , Thaumetopoea) is so pronounced that forests and fruit-cultivations are impassable 
for pedestrians in larval years. But also the imagines seem to be protected by the hairing. At least it was 
impossible to discover any other function of the hairs covering the thorax and the proximal margin of the 
forewing in many Lymantriids. The excessive development of these hairs, however, makes a very important 
function of them very probable. The hairs are then sometimes bristling upwards from the body, and in the 
resting imago, they form an upright comb extending across the dorsum of the abdomen. Where they are of 
a different colour from that of the parts of the body to which they are fastened, this may easily be noticed 
in the figure, e. g. in Eupr. niveinotum (t. 43 b) or in E. habrostola (44 g). 
A great part of the larvae live on trees, preferably favouring cultivated plants. In AVI. II, 
p. 110, we have already mentioned the harm done by some of them. As in the districts of the Indian region 
there are scarcely forests approximating our forests of fir-trees and oak-trees with respect to their uniformity, 
a massy growth, such as that of Lymantria monacha or dispar does not easily occur in the tropics. Certainly 
a great increase of certain species is also to be noticed there in some years. In extensive bamboo-thickets the AS 
of the Pantana- species are often seen in such masses dancing round the tops of bamboo-bushes, as the Stilpnotia 
salicis are in some years met with in our districts swarming round the poplar-avenus. The larvae of Perina 
nuda sometimes spin the tips of the twigs of the common fig-tree into small clusters in such a way that the 
tree assumes a decaying appearance. Euproctis plana is then often at the same time found in such great numbers 
on the same trees that the insects rest gregariously on the dark bark which from afar looks as if it were covered 
with orange dots, and wdien they commenced to cultivate regular pine-forests in Hongkong, immediately an 
increase of Lymantria dissoluta was to be noticed, which began to play the same dangerous part as Lym. 
