474 
LEPIDOPTERA. 
colouring is often beautifully cryptic, the larva remaining stiffly 
stretched out at an angle, the suckerfeet clasped round a twig, and 
the whole looking like a small shoot or twig and quite unlike a living 
insect. 
The moths are crepuscular as a rule and but rarely seen, or are 
found in thick vegetation and under shade. They have a habit of rest¬ 
ing with fully opened wings tightly pressed against the surface they are 
on ; the colouration is adapted to this, the markings continuous from 
fore to hind wing ; in this attitude they are difficult to distinguish and 
they will rest thus during the whole day if undisturbed. They seldom 
occur in any great abundance and the larvae are very seldom found. 
None is known to be of any economic importance in India. The family 
is a very large one (1,300 species in the Indian region) and additions are 
constantly being made to it. Nearly all are hill and forest forms, few 
living in the plains. 
Hampson divides the family into 6 sub-families, the key to which 
is on page 138 of volume III of moths in the Fauna of India. 
Boarmiince. —Hindwing with vein 5 obsolete. 
Dilinia capitata, Wlk., is a common species whose larva feeds on 
ber ( Zizyphus jujuba). The larva is green above, greenish-white below 
with the usual two pairs of suckerfeet; seen from above it is of the colour 
of the upper surface of the leaves, seen from below of the colour of leaves 
looked at from below, a colouring common in leaf-eating caterpillars and 
doubly cryptic. Pupation takes place between two leaves fastened with 
white silk; the period is about a week. 
Macaria fasciata, Fabr. (Plate XLI, fig. 2), is common, the larva 
green or brown with dorsal and sublateral yellow stripes, found feeding 
on the flowers of Acacia concinna. M. nora, Wlk., M. sufflata, Guen,, and 
M. emersaria, Wlk., are also likely to be found. 
Tephrina is the most abundant Geometrid in the plains, T. disputaria , 
Guen., being the little browny-white moth so common in grass. The larva 
feeds on babul (Acacia arabica ) and may be found wherever this tree 
grows (Plate XLI). Hyposidra talaca, Wlk., is another plains species, 
the larva green irrorated with black, with the 1st and 3rd abdominal 
segments dark, the recorded foodplants are Jambora, Combretus, 
Ficys parasiticus and rose. 
