Page:Jardine Naturalist's Library Exotic Moths.djvu/138

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116
CRYPTOTHELEA MACLEAYI.

therefore, in connexion with the former species, it must be understood that they resemble each other only in their metamorphoses, which are indeed strikingly similar.

Cryptothelea has the antennæ pectinated throughout their whole extent, the pectinations gradually diminishing in length from the base to the apex; wings broad and ample, the exterior margin of all of them rounded; body slender, and the extremity of the abdomen not projecting beyond the line of the hinder wings. Female apterous, never leaving the puparium.

The male of this species, named by its discoverer in honour of Mr. Macleay, is wholly of a black colour; the female yellowish, each segment with a band of yellow wool-like hairs. The larva has the three anterior segments of the thorax and the head yellow with brown marks; the rest obscure and bearing scattered pale warts. It always carries its tail erect, and lives among the branches and trunks of old trees, frequently forming its moveable tent of the lichens with which they are covered. In most other respects the history of this insect nearly corresponds to that of O. Kirbyi.