pupa is stout and slightly flattened. In Niphopyralis aurivillii, the pupa is 6 to 6.5 mm long and 2 mm broad, and of a light brown-yellow colour. The imago emerges from a mouthlike cleft on one end of the cocoon. Imagines Imagines of Niphopyralis exhibit an unusual, somewhat Limacodidae-like habitus. Furthermore, they lack a proboscis, have reduced palpi, and the males exhibit bipectinate antennae, a mix of characters that for a long time hindered their correct placement among Lepidoptera (see Systematics). The wingspan ranges from 12 to 22 mm, and the males being smaller than the females. The lower two thirds of the male antennae are bipectinate with ciliated teeth approximately as long as the antenna’s breadth. The compound eyes are large and rounded. A proboscis and ocelli are absent, and the labial palps are small. The body and wings are whitish to cream, with the front wing upper side usually exhibiting a diffuse wing pattern, whereas the underside has a dark brown colour. DNA sequence data DNA barcode data for different, mostly unidentified species of Niphopyralis are stored in the Barcode of Life Data System (BOLD), although only part of the sequences are publicly accessible. Behaviour The caterpillar of Niphopyralis myrmecophila lives in a flat oval self-spun casing consisting of two slightly curved halves that fit precisely onto one another. The halves are only loosely spun together, so that they can be easily separated. The casing tissue is relatively coarse. The outside colour is a dirty white, the inner side is lighter. The casing of a fully-grown caterpillar measures 15 x 11 mm, and the caterpillar is fully concealed by it. The larval cases seem to lie loosely in the nests of their host ants. Caterpillars of N. aurivillii have also been observed to live freely in the nests, and only occasionally they are found on the nest ground, fixed by a loose weave of a few crossed threads. Fully-grown larvae are also found in pupal ant cocoons, where they feed on the ant pupa. However, for pupation they also spin a cocoon similar to that of N. myrmecophila. The observations of Roepke (1916) on N. myrmecophila might therefore refer only to fully grown caterpillars, while the younger caterpillars potentially also live freely in the ant nests, but were not observed. The caterpillars are fully tolerated in the nest, but are not cared for by the host ants. They