578 
AMANA; CHATAMLA. By M. Gaede. 
angulifera. 
flavescens. 
nigrescens. 
tricolor. 
same rules as small Geometrids. White colouring, unless it be quite inconspicuous in very small species, such 
as some Acidalia, always involves a greater fugacity and the endeavour to hide in the dense foliage. The 
conspicuously coloured species, such as E. himala, moza, re-stricta, must be beaten out of the hedges; the greyish- 
brown species which generally hide on the underside of the leaves of herbs and exhibit the very common 
colouring of the family (also found in American species), as that of E. coseniponicola Strd. (59 h), adjutaria Wkr. 
(59 h), fulvihamata Hmps. (59 1), obscuraria Mr. (59 a) and many others, are more difficult to discover, unless 
they are settled on rocks or trunks. But hardly any of all these insects fly farther than a few yards, and almost 
every specimen chased up may easily be taken, unless it chances to creep into the brushwood. 
The discovery of the Epiplema is rather difficult owing to the peculiar habit many of the species have 
of rolling up their wings when at rest in the shape of tubes, so that their exterior is entirely unlike that of 
lepidoptera. This is in some way similar to certain Pterophoridae which in settling take up an attitude resembling 
more a crossed or split blade than an insect. 
Some Epiplemidae are distinguished by a most peculiar organ, as for instance the common E. birostrata 
Gn. from Tropical America. There the inner-marginal area of the hindwing has been turned over to form a 
capsule which contains a large number of the very finest hairs. On opening this fold, the contents gush forth 
in thick whitish curls and flocks. The hairs are long, very soft and extremely thin, thus belonging to a class 
of the finest hairs known in the animal kingdom. Their thickness amounts to not even 1 / 20 of the caliber of the 
finest larval hairs. The fine hairs at the margin of the hindwing in many Notodontidae, the tail-hairs of the 
Phalera are very much thicker, even the fine dorsal hairs of Aglia tau are much coarser. A fine hair on the 
head of a man is nearly a hundred times, and the hair of a beard several hundred times thicker than the hair- 
plait in the fold of the hindwing of those Epiplemidae. 
The abnormal shapes of the margins of the wings are almost universal in the Epiplemidae. Sometimes 
the anal margin of the hindwing is gnawed out, then again lobate and dentate before the lobe, as in the South- 
American Syngria druidaria. Indian species generally exhibit an irregularly dentate distal margin of the 
hindwing and sometimes also, corresponding to it, indentations in the distal margin of the forewing, as for 
instance in E. suisharyonis Strd. (59 1). The sharp marginal dents then often mark the places where the wing 
is turned over when being rolled up in the peculiar way mentioned above. These strange formations of the 
wings are accompanied by coloristic transformations, since in the places where the wings are folded up the 
colouring disappears, so that pale longitudinal areas extend between coloured ones, as for instance in E. 
nigella (59 k). 
The number and geographical distribution has already been dealt with in Vol. XIV, p. 387 and 390, 
where we also find statements about the early stages which as yet are little known. — We may mention yet 
that certain palaearctic species are remarkably similar to those from America; considering the poor flying- 
ability of tfiese mostly frail lepidoptera, we may infer from this universal range the considerable phylogenetic 
age of the Epiplemidae, which we have already stated before. 
Subfamily: Epipleniinae. 
1. Genus: linaiia Wkr. 
Palpi hairy, porrect. Antennae slightly thickened, flattened. Veins of forewing: vein 5 above the 
centre of the cross-vein, veins 6 -f- 7 and 8 -f- 9 -+- 10 stalked. In the hindwing vein 5 likewise above the centre 
of the cell. Type: angulifera Wkr. 
A. angulifera Wkr. (58 d). Dark brown, with yellow bands in the forewing, one from the base of the 
wing to the anal angle, and a submarginal one, both narrow. A broader one from the costal margin behind the 
middle, also to the anal angle. Hindwing somewhat lighter, with a few yellow spots at the apex and anal angle. 
60 mm. India. 
2. Genus: (lisitamla Mr. 
Antennae of dentate, of $ plain. Palpi short, porrect. Costal margin of forewing impressed behind 
the middle. Neuration as in Amana. Type: flavescens Wkr. 
Ch. flavescens Wkr. (58 c). Head and thorax black, abdomen with yellow rings. Forewings black 
with 3 yellow spots near the base, 5 white ones behind the cell and 7 submarginal ones. Hindwing yellow with 
an interior and exterior black band, margin black. In nigrescens Mr. the hindwing is white, but the black 
ground-colour of the forewing and the bands of the hindwing are much more extensive. — In tricolor Btlr. 
(58 d), on the contrary, the light spots on the forewing are more intense than the ground-colour, and in the 
hindwing only the interior dark band is preserved. 50—60 mm. India. 
