TINKID2E. 
533 
Several are destructive to agriculture and it is known that these are 
extensively parasitised by Hymenoptera; whether there are other checks 
is doubtful On account of these injurious species the family has an im¬ 
portance near to that of Noctuidce and Pyralidce, and deserves very care¬ 
ful study. The number of new species obtained by rearing shows that 
there is a large field for work and systematic collection at light would 
yield many. For descriptions of species the student must consult especi¬ 
ally Meyrick’s papers in the Journal of the Bombay Natural History 
Society, from 1904 onwards. Three papers of Stainton’s are valuable, 
in which he describes Indian species collected or reared by Atkinson. 
(Trans. Ent. Soc., London, n. s. Ill, p. 301 [1856] ; loc. cit., n. s. Y, p. 
Ill [1858]; loc. cit., 3rd ser. ; I, p. 291 [1862]. There is otherwise 
little with regard to life-histories on record and we have referred below 
to the common species reared in tropical India. 
Gelechiince. —Fifty species are recorded from India, of which a few 
have been reared ; Stainton in 1856 described 9 species of this sub-family 
obtained in Calcutta by Atkinson. Depress aria ricini; St., was reared 
from a green larva with black head which rolled the edge of the leaf 
of Castor. D. zizyphi , St., fed on the ber tree ; D. ricinella, St., was reared 
from a green larva with black head and prothoracic shield, also found 
rolling the leaf of castor. 
Brachmia ( Gelechia ) hibisci, Stn., fed on Hibiscus. (See Trans. Ent. 
Soc., London, n. s. V, p. Ill, for these and 14 other Tineidce). It has been 
reared on bhinda ( Hibiscus esculentus ) in Behar, the larva living under 
a web on the ventral surface of a leaf and feeding on the lower epidermis. 
It pupates in webbed leaves. Brachmia dilaticornis , Wals., is a brown 
moth, large for a Tineid, whose larva feeds on the leaves of gular ( Ficus 
glomerata). The larva grows to a length of two-thirds of an inch, of a 
sordid-white colour, with deep black hairs on the dorsal and lateral sur¬ 
faces ; it has a habit of curling up ventrally on being touched, showing 
the intersegmental constrictions. The full grown larva forms a cocoon 
of silk and hairs in a rolled up leaf ; apparently the larvae are nocturnal 
in habit as they are found by day in cracks in the bark. The moth has 
two distinct black spots on the forewing ; it is apparently common, 
having been found on both sides of the Indian continent. 
Ypsolophus includes two common plains species. Y. ochrophanes, 
Meyr. , is common on such leguminous plants as lucerne ( Medicago sativa), 
