KOCTUIDiE. 
441 
often tufted. The legs are of moderate size, the tibiae often with spurs 
and spines. Males are distinguished by many minor characters such 
as the pectination or ciliation of the antennae, the presence of scent 
diffusing hair-tufts on wings or legs and rarely by the different 
colouring ; females are usually the larger. 
The life-history in all is uniform in general characters. The eggs are 
round and the micropyle is at the top ; most are a pearly white or dull 
green, beautifully ribbed and sculptured ; they are laid singly or in 
clusters on the foodplant, the clusters sometimes covered with hair. The 
larvae have three to five pairs of prolegs, the first two pairs being reduced 
in some sub-families when the motion approaches that of the true looping 
caterpillars ; these larvae are known as semi-loopers and it is worth note 
that the first two pairs of prolegs are proportionately less developed in 
the young than in the old larva. The hooks on the prolegs are arranged 
in two opposed lines and not in a circle. As a rule, the larvae are not 
clothed in hair, nor do they have long processes. The typical larva is 
smooth with regularly disposed short hairs and a dull brown or green 
colouring. (Plate XXVIII, figs. 2, 5.) With very few exceptions they are 
herbivorous, a few boring in plants, the majority living on leaves. 
Eublemma is the sole genus known to include larvae which habitually 
feed on mealy bugs, but many leaf-eating larvae are cannibals if 
confined with insufficient food. 
Pupation takes place in the soil with no cocoon, but a case of consolid¬ 
ated earth, on the surface with a cocoon and leaves, or, more rarely, on 
plants in a cocoon. The imago is nocturnal, emerging at dusk. Hiber¬ 
nation, when it occurs, takes place normally in the resting larva or pupa 
stage, a few living through the winter in hiding as imagines. Some are 
active through the winter, especially in the moister parts of India, but 
the majority have food only in the rains. A number emerge as imagines 
in March and live until the rains if their foodplant is not available. Little 
is known as to the food of the imago, but it is certain that some feed on 
nectar, on fruit juice and on the sap exuding from plants. Some (e.g., 
Ophideres) are habitual feeders on the juice of fruits, piercing the rind with 
their proboscis to obtain the juice. In some reproduction is very rapid 
and the number of eggs laid totals hundreds and in some cases thousands. 
The smaller forms destructive to crops have several broods yearly, the 
larger forms and wild forms only one or two. 
