AVIL—THE 
HEPIALIDAE. O07 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
THE HEPIALIDAE. 
The family Hepialidae* may be readily distinguished 
by the following characters :— 
The head is rough; the antennae very short; the ocelli 
absent, the proboscis and maxillary palpil obsolete and the tibiae 
without spurs. The fore-wings have an oblique, membranous 
dorsal process (jugum) near the base; all the main veins and 
costa are connected by bars near the base; vein 10 is furcate, 
forked parting vein strong. The hind-wings have no frenulum 
and their neuration is essentially the same as the fore-wings. 
(Plate B., figs. 22-24 and 28-30). 
Of an undoubtedly primitive type, this family is very 
well represented in New Zealand by twenty species, most 
of which are large and conspicuous insects. In striking 
contrast we find in the British Islands only five native 
species of Iepiaktdae which, individually, compared with 
the New Zealand forms, are puny and inconspicuous, and 
constitute a very unimportant element in the fauna. The 
game relation holds good in respect of the European Con- 
tinent where only nine species occur, and in the whole of 
the great Palaearctic region a total of only twenty-two 
species of Hepialidae are found. From their strictly noc- 
turnal habits, and inability to feed when in their final 
condition, these insects are difficult to collect, and it is 
therefore almost certain that further species remain to be 
discovered, especially in the more unexplored districts. 
Whilst the male insects are most susceptible to the attrac- 
tion of lamps, the females are rarely thus ensnared, and 
the correct allocation of the sexes, even in many of the 
commonest species, has proved a matter of considerable 
difficulty. There is in fact little doubt, that much valu- 
able work in this family remains to be overtaken by the 
energy and enterprise of future naturalists. 
There are two genera represented in New Zealand— 
1. HEPIALUS. 2. PORINA. 
Genus 1—HEPIALUS, Fab. 
Antennae 4 to i, in male lamellate or simple. Palpi short, 
drooping, hairy. Posterior tibiae usually densely rough-haired, 
in male sometimes with long projecting tuft above. Fore-wings 
with vein 7 from angle, 8 remote, 9 and 10 stalked. Hind-wings 
as fore-wings, 8 seldom connate or stalked with 7. (Plate B., 
figs. 22 and 23 neuration of Hepialus virescens, 24 head of ditto.) 
A genus of universal distribution, but not very numer- 
ous in species. Ovum spheroidal, smooth. Larva elongate, 

*RPor a detailed account of the wing-coupling apparatus in 
this family, see article by Mr. Philpott in the Transactions of 
the Entomological Society of London 1925, pp. 331-340 and of 
the venation pp. 531-535. An article on the male genitalia, with 
special reference to the New Zealand species, appears in the 
same Transactions for 1927, pp. 35-41. 
active. Pupa with segmental whorls of spines, enabling it 
to move actively before emergence.: 
Represented by one species—Hepialus virescens, the 
largest moth we have in New Zealand. 
This insect, together with several allied Australian 
species, is often placed in a special genus called Charagia. 
As, however, its essential structure is identical with that 
assigned to the genus Hepialus, there appean to be no ade- 
quate grounds for its exclusion from that genus. 
HEPIALUS VIRESCENS. 
(Hepialus virescens, Dbld., Dieff. New Zeal., ii. 284; White, Tay- 
lor New Zeal., pl. i. 6. Hepialus rubroviridans, White, 
le., pl. i. 1. Charagia virescens, Walk., Bomb., 1569; 
Scott, Trans. Ent. Soc. N. S. Wales, ii. 28. OC. fischeri, 
Feld., pl. Ixxx. 1. C. hectori, Butl., Proc. Zool. Soc, Lond., 
1877, 380. Hepialus virescens, Meyr., Trans. N.Z. Inst., 
eeablng PAY) 
(Plate XLII, fig. 13 @, 14 9; Plate XLIIL., fig. 13 @, 14 9 
varieties. ) 
This very large and conspicuous insect appears to be 
generally distributed throughout the North Island. 
The expansion of the wings of the male is 4 inches; of 
the female sometimes almost 6 inches. The fore-wings of the 
male are bright green, with q series of paler ring-shaped mark- 
ings between the veins; an irregular row of white spots crosses 
the wing near the middle, and a smalk white spot is situated on 
the costa at the base. The hind-wings are very pale yellowish- 
brown near the body, becoming pure white in the middle, and 
pale green on the termen. The head and thorax are green, the 
abdomen is white, tinged with green at the apex. The female 
has all the wings of a relatively more attenuated shape; the 
fore-wings are green, mottled with black; the hind-wings are 
pale reddish-brown, shaded with green near the termen; the 
abdomen is also reddish-brown, becoming green at the extremity. 
This species is very variable in both sexes. In the 
male the green ground colour varies considerably, some- 
times inclining to bluish-green, more frequently towards 
yellowish-green, specimens of every intermediate shade 
and intensity of colouring being met with. The white 
spots on the fore-wings vary considerably in size, and 
oceasionally there are several additional spots near the 
body. Sometimes these spots are almost absent and very 
rarely replaced by a series of elongate blackish marks. An 
extremely rare and beautiful variety occurs in which the 
whole of the fore-wings are covered with large white spots. 
(See Plate XLIII., fig. 18).* In the female the black 
markings on the fore-wings are sometimes much more 
*This is the variety albo-exrtremus of Quail. See Trans. 
N.Z. Inst., xxxv.,.252. 

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