
XAXVII.—THE 



TINEIDAE. 201 
CHAPTER XVII. 
THE TINEIDAE. 
The Tineidae are distinguished by the following 
characters :— 
The head is clothed with appressed scales or rough-haired. 
The antennae are usually # the length of the fore-wings or more. 
The maxillary palpi are often developed. The labial palpi have 
the terminal joint more or less pointed. The tibiae have all the 
spurs present and usually long. The fore-wings have vein 1) 
normally furcate, le more or less developed, 5 normally not more 
approximated to 4 than to 6, neuration sometimes much, de- 
graded. The hind-wings are furnished with a frenulum, vein lc 
present, though doubtful in forms with degraded neuration, 8 
sometimes connected with middle of the upper margin of cell, 
thence diverging, seldom absent, neuration sometimes much de- 
graded. (Plates F, figs. 25-36, G, H. and K.) 
In certain sub-families (especially the Tineides) there 
is a remarkable tendency to the degradation of the wing 
structure, the wings becoming very narrow (compensation 
being afforded by a great increase in the length of the 
cilia), and many of the veins disappearing by coincidence. 
Notwithstanding the great difference in structure between 
the extreme forms, the whole are so closely connected by 
intermediate gradations that the clear definition of sub- 
families is by no means easy. The imago has the fore-wings 
more or less elongate, varying from oblong to linear; the 
hind-wings varying from ovate to linear. The typical 
markings of the fore-wings consist of three small dark 
spots or dots (stegmata), two being in the dise before and 
beyond the middle respectively (first and second discal), 
and one on the fold before the middle (plical) ; the hind- 
wings are without markings. The egg is usually round or 
oval, smooth but comparatively little known. The larva 
more or less elongate, with few hairs, usually living con- 
cealed, but very varied in habit. The pupa has a variable 
number of free segments; and, in the more primitive forms, 
is protruded from the cocoon in emergence, but not in 
higher forms. 
The Tineidae usually constitute more than a third of 
the whole Lepidoptera of any given region, and this pro- 
portion is apparently maintained in New Zealand. Of the 
452 species of the family, 164 belong to the Oecophorides, 
or about 36 per cent.; only in Australia does a similar pro- 
portion prevail, the usual ratio being about 9 per cent. It 
is curious that in the Hawaiian Islands, which have some 
faunal analogy with New Zealand (e.g., the great prepon- 
derance of the genus Scoparia in both), the Oecophorides 
are entirely absent. It is remarkable also that whilst New 
Zealand agrees with Australia in the numerical prevalence 
of the Occophorides, there is little near relationship 
between the representatives of the two regions, the chief 
Australian genera (such as Philobota and Hulechria) being 
only represented in New Zealand by one or two casual 
stragglers; the only genus well established in both regions, 
Borkhausena, 1s cosmopolitan. 
Other marked features are the scanty representation 
of the usually preponderating sub-family Gelechiades, the 
considerable development of the Glyphipterygides (espe- 
cially Glyphipterysx itself), and the absence of the Adelides, 
which is an ancient sub-family and present in all other con- 
tinental regions, (for I consider New Zealand as a contin- 
ent, or rather the remains of one). These features are 
difficult to explain on any theory, and at present too little 
is known of the Tineidae of the southern parts of South 
America to estimate accurately the amount of relationship 
with that region. Certain Glyphipterygid genera (Helos- 
tibes, and allies) are undoubtedly of South American 
origin; so also is the Gelechiad genus Amsoplaca. The 
genera of Heliodinides are all evidently connected with 
Queensland; the Cosmopterygides, Gracilariades, and 
Lyonetiades seem also all to have come from the same 
region. 
On a general consideration of the facts it seems that 
the native fauna is composed of three elements introduced 
at different periods of time—viz. (1) a South American 
element, which is the oldest, yet of a geological age not 
very remote, perhaps the Eocene, previous to which the 
region was entirely devoid of insects or flowering-plants; 
to this belong all the larger genera, Borkhausenia, Gymno- 
bathra, Trachypepla, Izatha, Simaethis, Glyphipteryx (in 
part), and a very few of the smaller genera, this fauna 
having been of a very limited character, and further re- 
stricted by the nature of the Antarctic lands through which 
the transmission was effected: (2) a mingled Australian 
and Indo-Malayan element derived from Queensland and 
the South Pacific by way of New Caledonia at a later 
period, conjecturally the Miocene, and including most of 
the smaller genera; at the same time a slight cross-immigra- 
tion of the earlier element into Queensland took place 
(Trachypepla) : (3) a small Tasmanian element, which has 
made its way (wind-borne) into New Zealand in quite 
recent times, the species being identical and unmodified 
(e.g., Cateristis). A fourth element of artificially introduced 
ypecies is now being superadded. (Meyrick). 
The numerous and varied assemblage of insects com- 
prised in this very extensive family are, in their ornamen- 

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