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Anjula Gurtoo · Colin Williams Editors

Developing
Country
Perspectives on
Public Service
Delivery
Developing Country Perspectives on Public
Service Delivery
Anjula Gurtoo • Colin Williams
Editors

Developing Country Perspectives on Public

Service Delivery
Editors
Anjula Gurtoo Colin Williams
Department of Management Studies Management School
Indian Institute of Science University of Sheffield
Bangalore, Karnataka, India Sheffield, UK

ISBN 978-81-322-2159-3 ISBN 978-81-322-2160-9 (eBook)

DOI 10.1007/978-81-322-2160-9

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015940407

Springer New Delhi Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London

© Springer India 2015
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Preface

This book is an attempt to better understand government service delivery in a devel-

oping country context. In this volume, public services refer to services where some
type of government delivery of an activity is perceived to be necessary, desirable
and inevitable. Although such services might in theory be feasibly delivered by
either the market or even the community (such as by voluntary action), there is often
a widespread belief that it is necessary and desirable for such services to be deliv-
ered by the public sector. For example, the delivery of police services to maintain
law and order is a service that few believe should be delivered in any sphere other
than the public sector. Similarly, social housing and primary education are also
widely delivered as public services. Taxes are the price for services provided by the
government. Whether one is considering the police, education or health care, all are
funded primarily through taxes, and these services are essential for the smooth func-
tioning of a society. The main rationale for government involvement in these ser-
vices which, in principle, could be provided by the private sector is that the
government will not withdraw or escape responsibility in cases where a profit is not
delivered.
These services often require decisions by the providers that are inherently imper-
fectly organized, or incomplete, or unevenly distributed, thus rendering them more
suitable for public delivery. Some of the elements of such service delivery that thus
need to be managed effectively include the following:
1. Use of resources: Resources here refer to the material, staff, funds and other
assets which are utilized to provide these public services. The effective use of
these resources could be pursued either to directly deliver services, to issue and
monitor contracts for other providers or to enter into partnerships with private or
voluntary sector providers to deliver the service. These resources also need to be
effectively used to maintain an enabling financial and secure environment and
provide a guarantee for proper judicial procedures under the rule of law.
2. Information and awareness: Asymmetry of information leads to a disconnection
in the effective utilization of any public service. Public education through proac-
tive engagement with key audiences; public relations through stakeholder

v
vi Preface

support to adapt, learn and understand the services; and other outreach efforts
are required to ensure the smooth and effective flow of services to the target
populations.
3. Efficiency of delivery mechanisms: Integration mechanisms, such as technology,
process innovations and human integration, impact on system performance. Indi-
cators of efficiency in public service delivery mechanisms include departmental
consistency in programme definition; fixing tangible measureable outputs across
the process; support for informed decision-making through timely data analysis,
especially of outcomes; and selecting the right mechanisms from various func-
tions across the departments.
4. Accountability and responsibility: Accountability measures typically focus on
how well policies, plans, programmes and people are performing. Policy plan-
ning, strategic planning, and operational planning and budgeting processes all
incorporate accountability and responsibility. Accountability and responsibility
are seen as basic drivers for the success of public service delivery.
Throughout the developing world, the oft-told story is one of the failures of pub-
lic services to deliver the services people need and want. The problem is often of
these service delivery efforts being ad hoc, small scale and often fragmented. For
example, the widespread failure to deliver social protection for citizens in the form
of social insurance schemes has often resulted in governments deciding to turn a
blind eye to the informal economy as an alternative social protection mechanism
that can act as a substitute for the failures of public service delivery. The resultant
vicious cycle is that fewer taxes are collected, meaning that public welfare services
cannot be delivered, resulting in yet further reliance on the informal economy as a
survival practice for populations marginalized from the formal sector and formal
welfare services. How to break such vicious cycles is an ongoing issue in many
developing economies. Indeed, it is not just social protection that is partial and ad
hoc in the developing world. Few developing countries have anything like a com-
prehensive level of provision of public services in many other realms, including the
provision of health and education, and there is little investment in workplace well-
being, such as health and safety provision or training and skills development.
Indeed, there is widespread recognition of these circumstances by national and
international bodies who sometimes advocate that private firms and the non-profit
sector should be able to compete with the government for the provision of such
public services. The common argument is that this will decrease the unit costs for
producing goods and services and therefore improve efficiency. Community partici-
pation approaches or decentralization, therefore, is increasingly becoming part of
the public service management and delivery, as direct service delivery by the public
sector is replaced with private and third sector provision. Two debates dominate this
discourse about the roles of local organizations in public service delivery. The first
issue concerns how to make local organizations perform effectively, and the second
concerns the relative functions and balance of government organizations, NGOs,
community groups and private organizations in service delivery.
Preface vii

This book seeks to provide case studies of a heterogeneous array of efforts in

urban and rural areas to deliver public services which may have some promise of
wider applicability and transferability. The outcome will be to propose an analytical
framework in the form of a typology and categories of administrative need (collabo-
ration, accountability, etc.) in the concluding chapter. The assumption throughout is
that the role of the government in developing countries must be modified to accom-
modate new actors, including non-profit, non-governmental organizations and other
forms of voluntary activity, as important development catalysts if encouraged.
Analytically, their service delivery roles can be separated from advocacy and devel-
opmental roles without distorting their overall contribution. During the past decade,
participatory approaches under the auspices of private and community partnership
structures have emerged in several spheres of service delivery, such as resource
management, local infrastructure development and resource distribution.
Governments are also developing strategies for economic growth by making local
organizations the central actors. The three main pillars of public delivery evaluation,
namely efficiency, flexibility and reach, are being strategized for maximum effec-
tiveness. These changes in service delivery include different ways to make savings
in public expenditure, improve quality by including civil society groups, make the
operations more transparent with the hope to increase the chances of policy effec-
tiveness and make use of diverse processes including privatization and externaliza-
tion. A review of the history of public service delivery highlights three clear time
periods. The initial “Weberian” approach towards the problem of inadequate ser-
vices in infrastructure, education, health, enforcement and regulations was based on
developing a centralized bureaucracy to supply a top-down and uniform public ser-
vice. This was not successful. In this approach, the social and political processes
which necessitate interactions between citizens and the state were overlooked. The
second time period, in the not-so-recent past, sought solutions in technology and
technological systems for a coherent approach to service delivery, implemented by
an impersonal, rules-driven provider. We do see some clear successes, but the fail-
ures caused most practitioners to doubt its universal applicability. Consequently, the
concepts of public participation, accountability, transparency and good governance
have emerged in more recent times. In the current scenario, technology, state, citi-
zens and social systems interact simultaneously through formal organizational
structures. While this does create institutional heterogeneity, the consequent emer-
gence of solutions is practical, applicable and acceptable to the citizens.
As the role of the state gets redefined in developing countries, the corresponding
increase in the role of the market and non-profit sectors emerges as a viable new
alternative for service delivery. Focusing primarily on collective action solutions
rather than the private sector, this book will also attempt a way of classifying the
myriad forms of service delivery and the factors required for success. Political,
sociological, economic, managerial and other perspectives are investigated for the
classification of good practice. The models reviewed will discuss public service
provision in the past using service performance and accountability through
top-down hierarchical control bureaucracy as well as the new public management
model which is more inclusive, local and influenced by the specific needs of the
target population.
viii Preface

To investigate these issues, this volume is divided into four parts. The first part
discusses issues of assessment and monitoring of performance in public health, tak-
ing case studies from countries as diverse as Columbia, India and the Philippines.
The first chapter analyses the 2011 health reforms in Columbia. The first reforms in
the health system took place in the early 1990s which included the creation of insur-
ance companies to support the poor and creation of affordable benefit packages for
the same. Authors Oscar Bernal and Juan Camilo Forero look at the second phase of
reforms in 2011 by analysing the satisfaction and trust levels of the main stakehold-
ers. The second chapter, by Rajib Dasgupta and others, characterizes the variables
that impact health systems, determines the influence of governance environments
on access and client behaviour, and identifies potential modifiable factors of gover-
nance. The third chapter looks at access to medicine in public hospitals. The authors
Santarupa Bandhyopadhyay, Arijita Dutta and Arpita Ghose analyse accessibility in
government-run hospitals in the Indian state of West Bengal. They look at two
issues, namely status of access and the barriers to access. The final chapter in this
part explores the policy agenda on hospital regulatory procedures and systems of
licensing in the Philippines. The authors Oscar P. Ferrer and Maria Clarisa R. Sia
evaluate the processes and practices adopted to attain social development.
The second part investigates infrastructure development and delivery. The chap-
ter by Ajit Kumar Vasudevan, Anand Kumar and R. K. Mittal derives a model for
cloud computing and examines the impact of the proposed model on Indian envi-
ronment, especially government policy and infrastructure. It also proposes a model
leveraging the existing infrastructure. The second chapter reviews the existing leg-
islative systems for small- and medium-scale industries in Fiji. The author Salvin
S. Nand highlights regulatory compliance difficulties from the public service deliv-
ery lens, using both qualitative and quantitative data. The next chapter by Ashish
Verma, S. Velmuguran and co-authors evaluates the current state of mobility in five
representative Indian cities and discusses the implications of the observed patterns.
The final chapter in this part discusses the vital issue of water security, where the
authors Subodh Wagle, Sachin Warghade and co-authors present findings of the
analysis of Water Regulatory Agencies and related reforms in India and highlight
the scenarios of aggravated threats to water security and sustainability.
The third part within this book investigates administrative capacity and perfor-
mance in the countries of the Russian Federation, the Philippines, Macedonia and
India. The author of the first chapter, Daria Prisyazhnyuk, looks at the professional-
ization of the Russian medical professionals. The chapter analyses the process and
develops a model for professionalization of the medical services. In the next chapter
on administrative capacity and performance, authors Joseph Capuno and Maria
Melody S. Garcia investigate 12 cities and municipalities in the Philippines where
fiscal decentralization has been introduced since 1991. They rate the performance
on different aspects and discuss the overall performance of the local government.
The chapter on Macedonia by Jadranka Denkova discusses the need for control
mechanisms and penalty provisions for responsible working of the administration.
The last chapter under this part analyses the accountability of the Karnataka state
police in India. The authors Meena Nair, Kollapudi Prabhakar and Prarthana Rao
Preface ix

study police stations and police personnel on their handling of complaints and sug-
gest an agenda for reforms through these learnings.
The fourth part evaluates reach and execution for rural and marginalized popula-
tions. Discussing housing for orphans, Sergey Vinkov, in the first chapter, reviews
the policy guidelines and practices regarding orphan care, with a focus on their
housing needs. The outcome is discussed in the light of the social adjustment skills
and the mobility of orphans. The second chapter by authors Linda M. Penalba and
Merlyne M. Paunlagui presents the role of informal credit providers to enable small
corn farmers to use corn varieties and discusses the effectiveness of the credit policy
reforms in the Philippines for improving corn farmers’ access to credit. The third
chapter discusses the cash grant scheme for the homeless in the Philippines. The
authors Ada Colico-Aquino and Jungbu Kim investigate the policy process of the
programme with particular emphasis on programme design, key actors, resources
and their interactions. The last chapter in this part looks at the role of the Philippines
government in private-led agriculture technology innovation. The authors R. D.
T. Baconguis, Linda Penalba, D. Elazegui and E. Dumayas present how the infor-
mal credit providers enable the small corn farmers to use genetically modified (GM)
corn varieties and how effective are the credit policy reforms in improving corn
farmers’ access to credit.
We invite you to review these case studies of public service delivery in develop-
ing countries. As an under-researched topic, there is a good deal of not only good
practice that is transferable across the developing world but also many lessons to be
learned so that the mistakes made in one nation are not repeated in others. If this
book speeds up the development of effective public service delivery across the
developing world, then it will have achieved its major objective. If it helps further
meet the needs of the citizens in the developing world that are provided through
public service delivery mechanisms, then it will have achieved its intention.

Bangalore, India Anjula Gurtoo

Sheffield, United Kingdom Colin Williams
Acknowledgements

This book is the realization of, on one hand, the diligent effort of the authors who
have patiently supported us throughout the making of the book and, on the other
hand, the successful completion of the International Conference of Public Policy
and Governance (PPG 2012), organized by the Department of Management Studies,
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and the Public Affairs Centre, Bangalore.
First and foremost thanks are due to Dr. Suresh, Director, Public Affairs Centre,
and Dr. Kala Sridhar, co-chair of PPG 2012 and Professor, Institute of Social and
Economic Change, Bangalore (earlier with the Public Affairs Centre), for being
very supportive partners of PPG 2012 and for their encouragement towards this
book.
We will also like to thank Prof. M. H. Balasubramanya, Chairperson, Department
of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Science, and Dr. P. Balachandra,
Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Science, for providing a
supportive environment, encouragement and active discussions to make the confer-
ence, and pursuit of this book, a success.
Without the patience and assistance of Sagarika Ghosh and Nupoor Singh of
Springer Publications, this book would not have been published. We are very thank-
ful to them. Finally, this acknowledgement will be incomplete without thanking
Ms. Kalaivani Pillai, who has supported us in several stages of this book, including
compilation, organization and formatting.
Any errors that remain are ours.

Anjula Gurtoo
Colin Williams

xi
Contents

Part I Public Health: Assessing and Monitoring Performance

1 Access to Medicine in Public Hospitals
and Some Crucial Management Issues ................................................. 3
Satarupa Bandyopadhyay, Arijita Dutta, and Arpita Ghose
2 Reproductive Health Services in Ethiopia ............................................ 17
Rajib Dasgupta, Narendra Kumar Arora, Damen Haile Mariam,
Solomon Kumbi Hawas, Sanjay Chaturvedi, Ashok Patwari,
and Kalyan K. Ganguly
3 Analyzing the 2011 Colombian Health Reforms .................................. 31
Oscar Bernal and Juan Camilo Forero
4 Policy Reform and Governance in Philippine
Health Regulatory System...................................................................... 41
Maria Clarisa R. Sia and Oscar P. Ferrer

Part II Infrastructure: Development and Delivery

5 Technology Diffusion: The Case of Cloud Computing in India .......... 57
Ajith Kumar Vasudevan, Anand Kumar, and R.K. Mittal
6 Unlocking Public Service Delivery Impediments
for SMES: The Case of Fiji .................................................................... 79
Salvin Saneel Nand
7 Urban Mobility Trends in Indian Cities and Its Implications ............ 95
Ashish Verma, S. Velmurugan, Sanjay Singh, Anjula Gurtoo,
T.V. Ramanayya, and Malvika Dixit
8 Water Security: Assessing the Role of Reforms
Related to Independent Regulatory Authorities in India .................... 117
Subodh Wagle, Sachin Warghade, Tejas Pol, and Mandar Sathe

xiii
xiv Contents

Part III Administrative Capacity and Performance

9 Professional Status of Physicians in the Russian Federation .............. 137
Daria Prisyazhnyuk
10 Perceived Quality of Public Administration and Trust in Local
Government Officials in the Philippines ............................................... 153
Joseph J. Capuno and Maria Melody S. Garcia
11 Legal Basis for Responsible Working of the Administration
in the Republic of Macedonia: An Assessment ..................................... 167
Jadranka Denkova
12 Accountability in the Karnataka State Police in India ........................ 179
Meena Nair, Prabhakar Kollapudi, and Prarthana Rao

Part IV Rural and Marginalized Populations: Reach and Execution

13 Housing for Orphans Against the Backdrop
of Social Disparity in Russia .................................................................. 199
Sergey Vinkov
14 The Role of Agricultural Public Extension
in a Private-Led Technological Innovation ........................................... 217
Rowena dela Torre Baconguis, Linda M. Peñalba,
Dulce D. Elazegui, and Elvira E. Dumayas
15 Implementing a Cash Grant Program
for the Homeless in Metro Manila, The Philippines ............................ 235
Ada Colico-Aquino and Jungbu Kim
16 Enhancing Credit Delivery Facilities
to Support Farmer’s Use of Technology................................................ 257
Linda M. Peñalba and Merlyne M. Paunlagui
17 Public Service Delivery – An Integrative Framework ......................... 271
Anjula Gurtoo and Colin Williams

Index ................................................................................................................. 289

Contributors

Narendra Kumar Arora INCLEN Trust International, New Delhi, India

Satarupa Bandyopadhyay Department of Economics, Bethune College, Calcutta,
India
Oscar Bernal School of Government, University of Andes, Bogota, Columbia
Joseph J. Capuno School of Economics, University of the Philippines, Baguio,
Philippines
Sanjay Chaturvedi Community Medicine, University College of Medical
Sciences, New Delhi, India
Ada Colico-Aquino Department of Social Welfare and Development – National
Capital Region, Manila, The Republic of the Philippines
Rajib Dasgupta Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health, School of
Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India
Rowena dela Torre Baconguis Institute for Governance and Rural Development,
College of Public Affairs and Development, University of the Philippines Los
Baños, Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines
Jadranka Denkova Faculty of Law, University “Goce Delcev”, Shtip, Republic of
Macedonia
Malvika Dixit Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Science,
Bangalore, India
Elvira E. Dumayas Center for Strategic Planning and Policy Studies, College of
Public Affairs and Development, University of the Philippines Los Baños, Los
Baños, Laguna, Philippines
Arijita Dutta Department of Economics, University of Calcutta, Calcutta, India

xv
xvi Contributors

Dulce D. Elazegui Center for Strategic Planning and Policy Studies, College of
Public Affairs and Development, University of the Philippines Los Baños,
Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines
Oscar P. Ferrer College of Social Work and Community Development, University
of the Philippines, Baguio, The Philippines
Juan Camilo Forero School of Medicine, University of Andes, Bogotá, Colombia
Kalyan K. Ganguly Indian Council of Medical Research, New Delhi, India
Maria Melody S. Garcia German Institute for Development Evaluation, Bonn,
Germany
Arpita Ghose Department of Economics, Jadavpur University, Calcutta, India
Anjula Gurtoo Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Science,
Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Solomon Kumbi Hawas Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Jungbu Kim Department of Public Administration , KyungHee University, Seoul,
The Republic of Korea
Prabhakar Kollapudi Participatory Governance Research Group, Public Affairs
Centre, Bangalore, India
Anand Kumar Electrical and Electronics Engineering, BITS- Pilani, Dubai,
United Arab Emirates
Damen Haile Mariam Public Health and Health Economics, Addis Ababa
University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
R.K. Mittal Director, BITS-Pilani, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Meera Nair Participatory Governance Research Group, Public Affairs Centre,
Bangalore, India
Salvin Saneel Nand School of Law, The University of Fiji, Lautoka, Republic of
Fiji
Ashok Patwari International Health, Boston University School of Public Health,
Boston, MA, USA
Merlyne M. Paunlagui Institute for Governance and Rural Development,
University of the Philippines Los Baños, Los Baños, Philippines
Linda M. Peñalba Institute for Governance and Rural Development, College of
Public Affairs and Development, University of the Philippines Los Baños, Los
Baños, Laguna, Philippines
Tejas Pol Resources and Livelihoods Group, PRAYAS, Pune, India
Contributors xvii

Daria Prisyazhnyuk Department of Sociology, National Research University –

Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russian Federation
T.V. Ramanayya Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, India
Prarthana Rao Participatory Governance Research Group, Public Affairs Centre,
Bangalore, India
Mandar Sathe Resources and Livelihoods Group, PRAYAS, Pune, India
Maria Clarisa R. Sia Centre for Policy and Executive Development, University of
the Philippines, Baguio, The Philippines
Sanjay Singh Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow, India
Ajith Kumar Vasudevan Process Development, Etisalat, Abu Dhabi, United Arab
Emirates
S. Velmurugan Traffic Engineering and Safety Division, Central Road Research
Institute, New Delhi, India
Ashish Verma Department of Civil Engineering and Centre for Infrastructure
Sustainable Transportation and Urban Planning, Indian Institute of Science,
Bangalore, India
Sergey Vinkov Higher School of Economics, National Research University,
Moscow, Russia
Subodh Wagle Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India
Sachin Warghade Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India
Colin Williams Management School, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
About the Editors

Anjula Gurtoo is an Associate Professor at the Indian Institute of Science,

Bangalore, India. Her research interest is in the area of public policy, and she has
published in the area of institutional reforms and decentralization, urban infrastruc-
ture, informal entrepreneurship, rural economy, and energy and environment. She
has been a fellow of the Social Science Research Council, New York, and of the
University of Leeds, UK. She has been awarded the Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru National
Award (2010–2012) for outstanding contribution in the field of Public Policy and
Social Science, by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of
Madhya Pradesh, India, and Social Science Research Award (2009) by the
International Development Research Centre, Canada – special mention for overall
contribution to research and also for best paper in the category ‘rural innovation
systems’.
Colin Williams is a Professor of Public Policy at the Management School,
University of Sheffield, UK. Colin’s broad research interests are in re-theorizing the
nature of economic development and investigating the implications for public policy.
Spatially, his interests range across the full spectrum from local and regional
economic development in the UK through to the restructuring of Western economies,
post-socialist societies and the third (majority) world. Much of his work focuses
upon rethinking the meanings of ‘economic’ and ‘development’, which directly
feeds into the work of the Centre for Regional Economic and Enterprise Development
(CREED), University of Sheffield, UK. Colin currently serves as editor of two
journals – the International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy and the
International Journal of Community Currency Research. Some books authored by
him are Rethinking the Future of Work: Directions and Visions (Palgrave Macmillan,
2007), The Hidden Enterprise Culture: Entrepreneurship in the Underground
Economy (Edward Elgar Pub, 2006), A Commodified World? Mapping the Limits of
Capitalism (Zed Books, 2005), and Cash-in-Hand Work: The Underground Sector
and the Hidden Economy of Favours (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004).

xix
 Part I
Public Health: Assessing and
Monitoring Performance
Chapter 1
Access to Medicine in Public Hospitals
and Some Crucial Management Issues

Satarupa Bandyopadhyay, Arijita Dutta, and Arpita Ghose

1.1 Introduction

There has been a long debate on the role played by the government-run health
facilities in terms of both equity and efficiency. Originally it was thought that health
care being a public good, should be provided by the government for the people and
this way should correct the market failure in the health care provisioning. Truly,
health as a service, for its very nature, cannot be treated as a purely marketable com-
modity. Being rather a merit good, equal access to health care by all is essential to
reduce the inequality in population health. If left to market, its access is restricted
by the ability of an individual to pay. Hence, the role of public sector is essential in
case of health care service. In developing countries, where a considerable percent-
age of the population still lives below the poverty line and seeks treatment in gov-
ernment hospitals and health centres, the importance of the public health system
needs no mentioning. Hence, it also explains the magnitude of the impact a poor
functioning of public health sector can have on such society, as the access can be
denied due to supply side constraints and/or lack of quality. Public health system
provides health care service (both preventive and precautionary) at free or nominal
cost through public hospitals, hence, ensures free access to all the health care
services. This chapter focuses on access to free medicines. Despite the fact that the
health status of a nation is determined by many factors like access to improved

S. Bandyopadhyay
Department of Economics, Bethune College, Calcutta, India
A. Dutta (*)
Department of Economics, University of Calcutta, Calcutta, India
e-mail: dutta.arijita@gmail.com
A. Ghose
Department of Economics, Jadavpur University, Calcutta, India

© Springer India 2015 3

A. Gurtoo, C. Williams (eds.), Developing Country Perspectives on Public
Service Delivery, DOI 10.1007/978-81-322-2160-9_1
4 S. Bandyopadhyay et al.

drinking water, availability of physicians and hospital beds, empowerment and

education among women and food security, access to medicines (i.e., drugs,
diagnostics and vaccines) remains a pre-requisite to the attainment of good health.
In literature, access to medicine has been defined as having medicines continuously
available and affordable at public or private health facilities or medicine outlets that
are within 1 hour’s walk from the homes of the population (UNDG 2003). And the
indicator used to measure this is the percentage of the patient population that is able
to avail itself of medicines (WHO 2003). Accessibility is a function of both avail-
ability and affordability of the medicines. While availability refers to the sum of
domestic production and net import of exports, affordability is determined by the
total costs of procuring and using the medicine given the disposable income of the
patient and/or the public health system.
However, according to the recent reports, one third of the world’s population
does not have access to basic and essential drugs and this figure raises to one half if
the poorest parts of Africa and Asia are considered (Dukes and Paula 2004). Keeping
in mind that medicines are important in both curing and preventing diseases, the
ultimate goal of ʻHealth for All’ cannot be achieved if people do not have adequate
access to essential drugs and vaccines. At present, the international context is char-
acterized by a growing income gap, accompanied by an expanding health gap and
improving access to medicines can help reduce these disparities (Shyama 2012).
In this respect, India represents a paradoxical situation. The country not only
produces enough drugs to meet domestic consumption, but as one of the largest
exporters of generic and branded drugs, it is also known as the ‘global pharmacy of
the south’. Despite this seemingly commendable performance, a large part of the
population does not have access to basic and essential drugs (Planning Commission
2011). The main barrier to access in India is non-affordability and lack of proper
public distribution facilities.
Given this backdrop, this chapter attempts to analyse the status of accessibility of
medicine in government-run hospitals in West Bengal, a state that is a middle rung
performer in terms of health indicators among all Indian states. We chose this state
primarily because of two reasons: first, secondary data show that this state has
increased public spending in drugs significantly in the last decade (Planning
Commission 2011) and the long rule of the Left Front Government apparently
created a conducive environment of decentralization in decision making. Second, in
this state people prefer to go to public hospitals in far greater percentage than the
overall Indian average (Sarvekshana 2000). Thus, access to medicines in these
hospitals becomes critical in determining the overall health scenario of the state.
This chapter tries to find the answers to the following questions:
1. What is the state of access to medicine in West Bengal and how do the public
hospitals perform in terms of creating this access?
2. What are the barriers to access to medicines in these hospitals?
Section 1.2 of this chapter outlines a brief literature survey on the topic while
highlighting the research gaps. Section 1.3 gives a note on data and methodology.
In Sect. 1.4 the results of both the research questions are summarized. In Sect. 1.5,
the chapter focuses on the problems related to the access and raises the managerial
issues. Finally, it concludes with some policy recommendations.
1 Access to Medicine in Public Hospitals and Some Crucial Management Issues 5

1.2 Literature Survey

Availability of reports and research papers on access to drugs in government

hospitals and hence on access to medicines is rather limited. Cameron et al.
(2009) show that the median availability of critical drugs in public health system
was about 30 % in Tamil Nadu, 10 % in Haryana, 12.5 % in Karnataka, 3.3 % in
Maharashtra and 0 % in West Bengal. A recent study on Tamil Nadu and Bihar
by Selvaraj et al. (2010) shows that the mean availability of the basket of
Essential Drug List (EDL) drugs in Bihar on the day of survey was 43 % and in
Tamil Nadu was 88 %. In Rajasthan, Lalvani et al. (2003) point out that the EDL
was inadequately implemented, resulting in only limited availability of these
drugs. Within a state inequity in access to medicine is a further point of concern.
For Bihar, the district of Vaishali had coverage of 63 % while that for Darbhanga
was a shocking 0 %! On the other hand, Kanjilal et al. found that in West Bengal,
77 % of government hospitals reported that the drug supply was regular and
another 68 % reported that it was adequate (Kanjilal 2007), though the highest
source of out-of-pocket expenditure in this state was due to buying of medi-
cines. Studies also showed that the procurement models of Delhi and Tamil
Nadu particularly improved the access significantly in the two states (Chatterjee
2009). Survey by Ramesh Govindaraj and Gnanaraj Chellaraj (2002) reveals
that the public sector distribution of drugs is reasonably efficient in Tamil Nadu
and Karnataka, while it was grossly deficient in Uttar Pradesh. Another study
highlights that with the exception of Karnataka, there is a shortage of public
sector drug outlets, particularly in the rural and remote areas (Kotwani et al.
2007). Stock positions in the public sector in remote areas as well as storage
quality leave much to be desired in states such as Uttar Pradesh. Stock out days
for the essential drugs were three times as frequent in remote and rural areas as
in the capital cities.
Tamil Nadu is a state that has considerably done well in health indicators across
the board and also in access to medicines. Special attention has been given to storage
of drugs at district level, while keeping the inventory management in full swing.
However, autonomous agencies like Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation
(TNMSC) may incur difficulties if the authorities working are political appointees
and do not have authority to take independent decision, which is why many state
governments are not able to adopt such a system (Lalitha 2005).
Though these studies identified the basic status of access to medicines in some
states, they do not focus on both the consumers as well as hospital positions, and
neither do they attempt on identifying the barriers to access to medicine in these
states. They also do not focus adequately on the problems of the health care system
as a whole and its managerial aspect. This chapter tries to bridge this gap in literature
with special attention to the state of West Bengal.
6 S. Bandyopadhyay et al.

1.3 Data and Methodology

For analysis, the secondary data sources of NSSO (several rounds) and those of
governments of individual states and centre have been used. As part of the primary
data, a survey was conducted on 81 secondary level government hospitals (out of
total of 95) in 19 districts across West Bengal.1 These include District Hospitals
(DHs), Sub-divisional Hospitals (SDHs) and State General Hospitals (SGHs). A
sample of 2019 patients were surveyed from these hospitals during the period July–
November 2010. The number was divided among the hospitals according to their
relative bed sizes. Sample size for each hospital was then divided between two cat-
egories: inpatients and outpatients, based on the ratio of them in total number of
patients in each hospital for the period January–December 2008. Samples of each of
these categories were then divided among different morbidity categories using the
same method. Detailed hospital input and output data were also collected for the
financial year 2009–2010.
The methodology adopted in the chapter has been quantitative in nature using
simple analytical reasoning with econometric tools. For the first objective, some
descriptive statistics and data explorations are used. For the second objective, first a
multinomial logistic regression model is used at the individual patient level. The
patients were categorized into three sets depending on whether he/she has received
all or most of medicines, only some medicines or no medicines free of cost from the
hospital pharmacy and took these categories as dependent variables while taking
hospital type, morbidity type and district locations of the hospital as independent
regressors. The multinomial logit model was used to find out the barriers with the
second category of dependent variable considered as reference category. The rela-
tive risk ratios (RRR) are used to locate the significant barriers. Again, taking the
share of patients in each hospital, who are getting all or most medicines, as depen-
dent variable, we ran regression on typical characteristics of the hospitals, namely,
geographical location of the hospital, the demographic pattern of the area, bed size
categories, distance of the hospitals from the state capital Kolkata, the outpatient per
bed day of the hospital and its staff combination. The geographical location of the
hospital, named as Region, is a categorical variable (the categories are Region 1:
North Bengal, Region 2: Western Rahr, Region 3: Central Plain, Region 4: adjoin-
ing Kolkata). The percentage of Muslim population in the district and the percent-
age of Scheduled Tribe population in the sub-division have been taken to represent
the demographic pattern of the area where the hospital is situated. Bed category is
another categorical variable based on which we have grouped the hospitals accord-
ing to bed size. Outpatient per bed day is defined as the number of patients treated
in the outdoor per day divided by the number of beds which reflects the pressure in
the outdoors. Distance from Kolkata is a proxy of the control of the state head

1
The study was financed by Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of West
Bengal, under the project ‘The Efficiency of Hospitals in West Bengal’. The executive summary of
the report is available at www.wbhealth.gov.in/notice/summary.pdf
1 Access to Medicine in Public Hospitals and Some Crucial Management Issues 7

Table 1.1 Access to medicine: free, partly free and on payment in India and West Bengal
1986–1987a 1995–1996 2004–2005
India: inpatient
Not received/required 12.85 3.56 3.12
Free 31.2 12.76 8.80
Partly free 15 15.71 17.08
On payment 40.95 67.97 70.99
India: outpatient
Not received/required 12.11 6.09 9.06
Free 17.98 7.30 7.14
Partly free 4.36 3.66 4.39
On payment 65.55 82.96 79.40
West Bengal: inpatient
Not received/required NA 2.90 2.10
Free NA 11.69 6.59
Partly free NA 36.07 40.58
On payment NA 49.34 50.73
West Bengal: outpatient
Not received/received NA 5.88 7.05
Free NA 4.74 4.15
Partly free NA 4.51 4.50
On payment NA 84.87 84.30
Source: Bose (2014) from NSSO 52nd and 60th rounds
a
Planning Commission 2011

quarter. We have also taken the efficiency score of each hospital derived by Data
Envelopment Analysis using input–output combination of them (Dutta et al. 2012)2
to test whether the hospital’s overall efficiency increases the access to medicines
among the patients.

1.4 Results

1.4.1 Research Question 1

From secondary data, we find that access to free medicine from hospital sources has
gone down significantly over the years in India, particularly in West Bengal.
Table 1.1 shows that availability of free medicine in India decreased over the period
of 1986–1987 and 2004–2005, though during that time the hospitalization rate in
public hospitals increased rapidly. In West Bengal, in both 1992–1993 and 2004–
2005 the share of patients receiving free medicine are lower than that of all India

2
Using the same data set as here.
8 S. Bandyopadhyay et al.

average in both hospitalized inpatient department (IPD) and outpatient department

(OPD) care, though the difference is radically pronounced in the latter.
Coming to the financing of drug in public sector, we find that on average India
increased its expenditure per capita on drug by 90.23 % in the last decade of 2000–
2001 to 2010–2011 while the corresponding figure for West Bengal was 234.72 %,
far higher than the average (Table 1.2). On the other hand, the share of drug expen-
diture in total health expenditure decreased in most states in India, though it rose in
states like Bihar, Gujarat, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh, meaning that in these
states the government’s initiative was significantly better. However, detailed analy-
sis of West Bengal, Gujarat and Punjab showed that this expenditure was heavily
skewed and over 70 % of the drug expenditure was concentrated in tertiary medical
colleges (Planning Commission 2011), while there was acute shortage in primary
and secondary hospitals. This essentially hints towards a near draught of medicine
availability in smaller towns and villages, where majority of people live.
In the milieu of recent public debate of gross under-performance of government
hospitals in the state, we felt the necessity to look at the issue in detail at the second-
ary level hospitals where the access has been reduced in the state. Technically
speaking, secondary hospitals are defined as those which offer secondary care.
Secondary care is the health care services provided by medical specialists and other

Table 1.2 Trends in state-wise government drug expenditure

2001–2002 2010–2011 Change
Per capita Drug Per capita Drug Per capita Drug
expenditure expenditure expenditure expenditure expenditure expenditure
in drug as a % of in drug as a % of in drug as a % of
States (Rs.) HE (Rs.) HE (Rs.) HE
Assam 5.7 4.7 28.5 5 400.00 6.38
Bihar 2.6 3.1 13.8 7 430.77 125.81
Gujarat 5.3 3.7 26.4 7.6 398.11 105.41
Haryana 14.7 9.8 24.2 5.8 64.63 −40.82
Kerala 38.9 17 72.3 12.5 85.86 −26.47
Maharashtra 20.8 11.3 18.7 5.2 −10.10 −53.98
Madhya 13 11.8 17.1 9.3 31.54 −21.19
Pradesh
Punjab 3.7 1.4 5.6 1 51.35 −28.57
Rajasthan 15.9 9.3 5.7 1.5 −64.15 −83.87
Uttar 4.2 5.2 15.9 5.3 278.57 1.92
Pradesh
West Bengal 7.2 4.3 24.1 6.8 234.72 58.14
Andhra 16.6 9.6 27.9 10 68.07 4.17
Pradesh
Karnataka 14.7 7.9 25.1 6.3 70.75 −20.25
Tamil Nadu 28.9 15.3 65 12.2 124.91 −20.26
All India 13.3 8.4 25.3 6.7 90.23 −20.24
Source: Planning Commission 2011
1 Access to Medicine in Public Hospitals and Some Crucial Management Issues 9

health professionals who generally do not have first contact with patients,
for example, cardiologists, urologists and dermatologists. We chose the second-
ary level hospitals not only because of its huge geographical span in the state, but
also due to the fact that they bear the largest burden of patients, both outdoor and
indoor.
From our primary survey, we find that only 10 % of the patients in OPD get all
the medicines prescribed at free of cost from the hospital. The IPD picture is even
graver where only 6 % of the patients admitted get the medicines. The predomi-
nance of share getting ‘some’ medicines was further investigated and it was found
that the cheaper medicines were mainly provided free of cost from the hospitals
while the expensive drugs were to be bought from outside. The study of district-
wise situation reveals that even the best performing districts in this field like Bankura
or Hugli cannot ensure at least 30 % of their patients all the medicines at free of
cost. In as many as seven districts, none of the inpatients interviewed reported to
have all the medicines free of cost. There is also variation within district between
drug access in OPD and IPD.
Table 1.3 shows the picture of medicine access across the hospital types.
However, in both IPD and OPD, DHs fare the worst. The best access in IPD is in
SGH may be because many of them are actually under-utilized with extremely low
Bed Occupancy Rate. Table 1.4 shows the situation across the morbidity types
which portray a very interesting observation. In both OPD and IPD, the patients
who have come for maternity- and gynaecology-related diseases enjoy the least
access to free medicines. This is in strong contrast with the fact that the prime focus
of Millennium Development Goals has been to ensure safe motherhood and maternal

Table 1.3 Share of patients receiving all medicines prescribed from hospital across type of
hospitals (both OPD and IPD)
Share of patients receiving all medicines
Type of hospital IPD OPD
District hospital 5.7 9.4
Sub-divisional hospital 4.7 11.2
State general hospital 7.8 9.5
Source: Analysis from patient survey

Table 1.4 Share of patients receiving all medicines prescribed from hospital across morbidity
pattern (both OPD and IPD)
Share of patients receiving all medicines
Type of hospital IPD OPD
General 7.45 12.52
Maternity and gynaecology 4.07 7.88
Others 6.96 10.17
Source: Analysis from patient survey
10 S. Bandyopadhyay et al.

care. But this does not seem to be a priority area when free access to medicines in
secondary level government hospitals of West Bengal is concerned.3
During the survey, a list of 30 drugs published by Health Action International or
HAI (www.hai.org) was collected, which according to HAI are bare essential drugs
that should always be available in any secondary level hospital. It was found that in
none of the hospitals at least half of those drugs were available and the mean avail-
ability was about 25 %. When this was tabled in the department, many of the offi-
cials refused to accept the HAI list, as according to them, the list included many
non-essential drugs. In order to get the true picture, our special survey team visited
six hospitals (two DHs, two SDHs and two SGHs in the vicinity of Kolkata) to find
out how many of the 123 drugs from the Central Medical Store (CMS) catalogue of
West Bengal were available in those hospitals on the date of survey. The maximum
availability was 40 %, while the average was 29 %.

1.4.2 Research Question 2

Now coming to locating the barriers to access, we ran a multinomial logistic regres-
sion to find out what factors determine the availability of medicine to the patients of
these secondary level government hospitals. We took the categorical variable (with
three categories, i.e., all or most drugs received from hospital, some drugs received
from hospital and no drugs received from hospital) as the dependent variable
(already discussed in Sect. 1.3). We formed five regional categories4 in IPD and
three categories in OPD.5 The following Tables 1.5 and 1.6 show the results of the
econometric model in terms of the RRR. An RRR more than one represents increase
in comparative probability, while an RRR less than one means a decrease.
In OPD the probability of getting all medicines compared to some medicines
increases by 2.03 times (Table 1.5) if one goes from DHs to SGHs and in IPD it
increases by 2.76 times (Table 1.6).
Though in OPD, the marginal effect of moving from DH to SDH is not signifi-
cant for getting all medicines compared to some medicines, it is significant in
IPD. Thus, in general, SGH and SDH have higher chance to get all medicines com-
pared to some medicines. On the other hand, the morbidity type has significant
impact in OPD, but not in IPD. In OPD, the marginal effect of getting all medicines

3
After submission of the report of the project, the government took immediate steps to provide free
medicine to all maternity patients in all hospitals in West Bengal. The result of that initiative, how-
ever, is not yet evaluated.
4
Clubbing Method of districts: IPD: D1: >50 % (Bankura, Malda); D2: 30 %–50 % (Hooghly,
E. Medinipur); D3: 20 %–30 % (N. 24 pgns, S. 24 pgns., Howrah, Purulia, Coochbehar); D4:
10 %–20 % (Murshidabad, W.Medinipur, U.Dinajpur); D5: <10 % (Birbhum, Bankura, Burdwan,
D. Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri, Nadia).
5
OPD: D1: >25 % (Coochbehar, Murshidabad, E. Medinipur, W. Medinipur, Purulia); D2:
20 %–25 % (Birbhum, Burdwan, D.Dinajpur, Howrah, N.24Pgns., S.24 Pgns); D3: <20 %
(Bankura, Hooghly, Jalpaiguri, Malda, Nadia, U. Dinajpur).
Another random document with
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its larva is called the Hill-grub and lives on the grass of pastures,
frequently doing great damage in hill-lands. The increase of this
moth seems to take place after the manner of an epidemic; a
considerable number of years may pass during which it is scarcely
seen, and it will then appear in unusual numbers in widely separated
localities. This moth lays a large number of eggs, and is not
completely nocturnal in habits; sometimes it may be seen on the
wing in great numbers in the hottest sunshine, and it has been
noticed that there is then a great disproportion of the sexes, the
females being ten or twenty times as numerous as the males. In
Australia, the Bugong moth, Agrotis spina, occurs in millions in
certain localities in Victoria: this moth hibernates as an imago, and it
formerly formed, in this instar, an important article of food with the
aborigines. The powers of increase of another Noctuid moth—
Erastria scitula—are of great value. Its habits have been described
by Rouzaud.[313] On the shores of the Mediterranean the larva of
this little moth lives on a Scale-Insect—Lecanium oleae—that infests
the peach; and as the moth may have as many as five generations in
a year, it commits laudable havoc with the pest. The larva is of
remarkable form, very short and convex, with small head, and only
two pairs of abdominal feet. The scale of the Lecanium is of larger
size than is usual in that group of Insects, and the young larva of the
Erastria buries itself, as soon as hatched, in one of the scales; it
destroys successively numerous scales, and after having undergone
several moults, it finds itself provided, for the first time, with a
spinneret, when, with the aid of its silk, it adds to and adapts a
Coccid scale, and thus forms a portable habitation; this it holds on to
by means of the pair of anal claspers, which are of unusual form.
The case is afterwards subjected to further alteration, so that it may
serve as a protection to the creature when it has changed to a pupa.
This moth is said to be free from the attacks of parasites, and if this
be the case it is probable that its increase is regulated by the fact
that when the creature becomes numerous it thus reduces the food
supply, so that its own numbers are afterwards in consequence
diminished.
One of the most remarkable genera of British Noctuidae is
Acronycta,[314] the larvae of which exhibit so much diversity that it
has been suggested that the genus should be dismembered and its
fragments treated as allied to several different divisions of moths.
There are many points of interest in connection with the natural
history of these Acronycta. A. psi and A. ridens are practically
indistinguishable as moths, though the larvae are easily separated:
the former species is said to be destroyed to an amazing extent by
parasites, yet it remains a common Insect. The genus Apatela is
very closely allied to Acronycta, and Harris says that "Apatela
signifies deceptive, and this name was probably given to the genus
because the caterpillars appear in the dress of Arctians and
Liparians, but produce true owlet-moths or Noctuas."[315] The
species of another British genus, Bryophila, possess the exceptional
habit of feeding on lichens. Some of the American group Erebides
are amongst the largest Insects, measuring seven or eight inches
across the expanded wings.

The Deltoid moths are frequently treated as a distinct family,

Deltoidae, perhaps chiefly because of their resemblance to
Pyralidae. At present, however, they are considered to be separated
from Noctuidae by no valid characters.

Fam. 38. Epicopeiidae.—The genus Epicopeia consists of only a

few moths, but they are amongst the most extraordinary known: at
first sight they would be declared without hesitation to be large
swallow-tail butterflies, and Hampson states that they "mimic" the
Papilios of the Polyxenus group. Very little is known about these
extremely rare Insects, but the larva is stated, on the authority of Mr.
Dudgeon, to surpass the moths themselves in extravagance; to be
covered with long processes of snow-white efflorescence, like wax,
exuded from the skin, and to "mimic" a colony of the larva of a
Homopterous Insect. Some ten species of this genus are known
from Java, India, China, and Japan. In this family there is said to be
a rudimentary frenulum, but it is doubtful whether the hairs that have
given rise to this definition really justify it.
Fam. 39. Uraniidae.—A family of small extent, including light-bodied
moths with ample wings and thread-like antennae; most of them
resemble Geometridae, but a few genera, Urania and Nyctalemon,
are like Swallow-tail butterflies and have similar habits. The
Madagascar moth, Chrysiridia madagascariensis (better known as
Urania rhipheus), is a most elegant and beautiful Insect, whose only
close allies (except an East African congener) are the tropical
American species of Urania, which were till recently treated as
undoubtedly congeneric with the Madagascar moth. The family
consists of but six genera and some sixty species. The question of
its affinities has given rise to much discussion, but on the whole it
would appear that these Insects are least ill-placed near Noctuidae.
[316] The larva of the South American genus Coronidia is in general
form like a Noctuid larva, and has the normal number of legs; it
possesses a few peculiar fleshy processes on the back. A
description of the larva of Chrysiridia madagascariensis has been
widely spread; but according to Camboué,[317] the account of the
metamorphoses, first given by Boisduval, is erroneous. The larva, it
appears, resembles in general form that of Coronidia, and has
sixteen feet; it is, however, armed with long, spatulate black hairs; it
changes to a pupa in a cocoon of open network.

Fig. 206—Abdomen of Chrysiridia madagascariensis. A, Horizontal

section showing the lower part of the male abdomen: 1, first
segment; 2, spiracle of second segment; 4-8, posterior segments.
B, the abdomen seen from the side, with the segments numbered.
The section is that of an old, dried specimen.

In all the species of this family we have examined, we have noticed

the existence of a highly peculiar structure that seems hitherto to
have escaped observation. On each side of the second abdominal
segment there is an ear-like opening (usually much concealed by
overlapping scales), giving entrance to a chamber in the body; this
chamber extends to the middle line, being separated from its fellow
by only a thin partition. At its anterior and lateral part there is a
second vesicle-like chamber, formed by a delicate membrane that
extends as far forwards as the base of the abdomen. There can be
little doubt that this is part of some kind of organ of sense, though it
is much larger than is usual with Insect sense-organs.

Fam. 40. Epiplemidae.—Under this name Hampson has assembled

certain Geometroid moths, some of them placed previously in
Chalcosiidae, some in Geometridae. They form a varied group,
apparently closely allied to Uraniidae, and having a similar peculiar
sense-organ; but are distinguished by the presence of a frenulum.
The larva seems to be like that of Uraniidae.

Fam. 41. Pyralidae.—This division is to be considered rather as a

group of families than as a family; it includes a very large number of
small or moderate-sized moths of fragile structure, frequently having
long legs; antennae simple, only in a few cases pectinate;
distinguished from Noctuidae and all the other extensive divisions of
moths by the peculiar course of the costal nervure of the hind wing,
which either keeps, in the middle of its course, near to the sub-costal
or actually unites with it, subsequently again separating. Members of
the Pyralidae are found in all lands; in Britain we have about 150
species. The larvae are usually nearly bare, with only short,
scattered setae, and little coloration; they have most varied habits,
are fond of concealment, and are very lively and abrupt in
movement, wriggling backwards as well as forwards, when
disturbed; a cocoon is formed for the metamorphosis.

The family as a whole consists of Insects of unattractive appearance,

although it contains some very elegant and interesting moths and
numerous forms of structural interest. In the genus Thiridopteryx little
transparent spaces on the wings occur as a character peculiar to the
males; the spaces are correlative with a greater or less derangement
of the wing-nervures. In some other forms there is a remarkable
retinaculum, consisting of large scales, and this, too, is connected
with a distortion of the wing-nervures. The Pyralidae—Pyralites of
Ragonot,[318] Pyralidina of Meyrick—have recently been revised by
two naturalists of distinction almost simultaneously; unfortunately
their results are discrepant, Meyrick including Pterophoridae and
Orneodidae, and yet admitting in all only eight families; while
Ragonot does not include the two groups named, but defines
seventeen tribes of the two families—Pyralidae and Crambidae—
that he admits.

The Pyraustidae of Meyrick is an enormous division including the

Hydrocampidae and Scopariidae of many authors, as well as the
Pyraustinae proper and a small group of Ragonot's, the
Homophysinae. The division Scopariinae is believed to be amongst
the "most ancient" of Lepidoptera; the food of the larvae consists of
moss and lichens. This group is widely distributed, being richly
represented in Australia, New Zealand, and the Hawaiian Islands, as
well as in Europe; and probably really occurs wherever their food-
plants exist accompanied by a tolerable climate. The statistics of the
distribution of this group, so far as at present known, have been
furnished by Mr. Meyrick, as follows:—European region, about 25
species; Madeira, 3; St. Helena, 6; South Africa, 2 or 3; India, 9;
Malayan region, 3 or 4; Australia, 24; New Zealand, 64; Hawaiian
Islands, 50; North America, 17 (one of them European); South
America, 10. The Hydrocampinae—the China-marks—are of great
interest, as being amongst the few forms of Lepidoptera adapted for
aquatic life. It is believed that all their larvae are aquatic, though of
only a few is there much known. The diversity amongst these forms
is of considerable interest. The habits of Hydrocampa nymphaeata
were long since described by Réaumur, and have more recently
been dealt with by Buckler,[319] W. Müller[320] and Prof. Miall.[321]
Although there are some discrepancies in their accounts, due we
believe to the observations being made at different periods of the life
and under somewhat different circumstances, yet the account given
by Müller is we feel no doubt substantially correct. The larvae when
hatched mine in the leaves of a water-plant for a short time—thirty
hours to three days according to Buckler—and are completely
surrounded by water, which penetrates freely into their burrows; at
this period the caterpillar breathes by its skin, the spiracles being
very small, and the tubes leading from them closed and functionless.
After this brief period of mining life, the larva moults and then
constructs a habitation by cutting a piece out of a leaf, and fastening
it to the under side of another leaf; it is thus provided with a
habitation, but it is one into which the water freely enters, and the
respiratory apparatus remains in the state we have described. The
Insect passes through several moults, and then hibernates in the
water. On its revival in the spring a change occurs, and the larva
constructs a portable, or we should rather say free, habitation out of
two large pieces of leaf of lens-shape, fastened together at the
edges; but the larva has some method of managing matters so that
the water can be kept out of this house; thus the creature lives in air
though immersed in the water. A correlative change occurs in the
structure of the skin and tracheal system. The former becomes
studded with prominent points that help to maintain a coat of air
round the Insect, like dry velvet immersed in water; the spiracles are
larger than they were, and they and the tracheal tubes are open.
One or two moults take place and the creature then pupates. There
is a good deal of discrepancy in the accounts of this period, and it
seems probable that the pupa is sometimes aerial, sometimes
aquatic. Buckler's account of the formation of the case shows that
the larva first cuts off, by an ingenious process, one piece of leaf,
leaving itself on this, as on a raft; this it guides to a leaf suitable for a
second piece, gets the raft underneath, and fastens it with silk to the
upper portion, and then severs this, leaving the construction free;
afterwards the larva goes through a curious process of changing its
position and working at the two extremities of the case, apparently
with the object of making it all right as regards its capacity for
including air and keeping out water. He believes that Réaumur was
correct in his idea that the larva regulates the admission of air or of
water to the case in conformity with its needs for respiration. Müller
calls special attention to the great changes in habit and in the
structure of the integument during the life of this larva; but the reader
will gather from what we relate as to various terrestrial Lepidopterous
larvae, that these phenomena are not very dissimilar from what
frequently take place in the latter; a change of habits at some
particular moult, accompanied by great changes in the integument,
and even in the size of the stigmata, being of frequent occurrence.

The larva of Nymphula stagnata, a close ally of H. nymphaeata, has

aquatic habits of a somewhat similar but simpler nature; while N.
(Paraponyx) stratiotata is very different. This larva is provided with
eight rows of tufts of flexible branchiae, occupying the position of the
spots or setigerous warts usual in caterpillars, and reminding one of
the spines of certain butterfly-larvae, though they are undoubtedly
respiratory filaments. These caterpillars protect themselves by
forming silken webs or cases, or by adopting the case of some other
larva, and are in the habit of holding on by the anal claspers, and
rapidly and energetically moving the anterior parts of the body in an
undulating fashion. The spiracles exist, but are functionless. The
pupa lives under water, and has no branchiae; but three of the pairs
of abdominal spiracles are open, and project from the body. Müller
informs us that in a Brazilian Paraponyx these three pairs of
spiracles were already large in the larva, though the other pairs were
very small, or absent. He considers that the moth of this species
descends beneath the water of a rapid stream, and fastens its eggs
on the stems of plants therein. Cataclysta lemnata lives in a case of
silk with leaves of duckweed attached to it, or in a piece of a hollow
stem of some aquatic plant; it is believed to breathe, like H.
nymphaeata, at first by the integument and subsequently by open
stigmata; but particulars as to how it obtains the requisite air-supply
are not forthcoming: the aquatic pupa breathes by three large
abdominal spiracles like Paraponyx.

Musotimidae[322] is a small group of two or three genera found in

Australia and Polynesia; and the Tineodidae also consist of only two
Australian genera. Siculodidae is likewise a small Antarctic group,
placed by Meyrick in Pyralidina; but his view is not accepted by
Snellen and Ragonot. Epipaschiinae (formerly treated as a separate
family) and Endotrichiinae are, according to Meyrick, subdivisions of
the family Pyralidae proper, an enormous group of more than 100
genera. The Chrysauginae consist chiefly of American forms, and
have not been treated by Meyrick; some of this group have been
classed with Tortricidae or Deltoidae on account of the undulating
costa of the front wings and the long, peculiar palpi. The Galleriidae
are a small group including Insects that live in bees'-nests, and feed
on the wax etc.; others eat seeds, or dried vegetable substances.
Three out of our five British species of this family occur (usually
gregariously) in bee-hives, and have the peculiar habit of spinning
their cocoons together. The mass of common cocoons formed in this
manner by Aphomia sociella is remarkably tough and enduring;
portions of it are not infrequently picked up, and as the cocoons are
of a peculiar tubular form their nature gives rise to some perplexity.

Phycitidae[323] is another very large assemblage of Insects with very

diverse habits. The frenulum and retinaculum are similarly formed in
the two sexes: the males frequently have the basal-joint of the
antennae swollen; hence the term "Knot-horns" applied by collectors
to these moths. The larvae of the species of Ephestia infest
groceries, and most children have become to a slight extent
acquainted with them amongst dried figs; that of E. kuehniella has
become very injurious in flour-mills, its enormous increase being due
in all probability to the fact that the favourable and equable
temperature maintained in the mills promotes a rapid succession of
generations, so that the Insect may increase to such an extent as to
entirely block the machinery. Many of the Phycitidae feed on the bark
of trees in galleries or tunnels constructed partially of silk. A very
peculiar modification of this habit in Cecidipta excoecaria has been
described by Berg.[324] In Argentina this Insect takes possession of
the galls formed by a Chermes on Excoecaria biglandulosa, a
Euphorbiaceous tree. The female moth lays an egg on a gall, and
the resulting larva bores into the gall and nourishes itself on the
interior till all is eaten except a thin external coat; the caterpillar then
pupates in this chamber. The galls vary in size and shape, and the
larva displays much constructive ability in adapting its home to its
needs by the addition of tubes of silk or by other modes. Sometimes
the amount of food furnished by the interior of the gall is not
sufficient; the larva, in such cases, resorts to the leaves of the plant
for a supplement, but does not eat them in the usual manner of a
caterpillar; it cuts off and carries a leaf to the entrance of its abode,
fastens the leaf there with silk, and then itself entering, feeds, from
the interior, on the food it has thus acquired. Another Phycitid,
Dakruma coccidivora is very beneficial in North America by eating
large Scale-Insects of the Lecanium group, somewhat after the
fashion of Erastria scitula; it does not construct a case, but shelters
itself when walking from one scale to another by means of silken
tubes; it suffers from the attacks of parasites.[325] Oxychirotinae, an
Australian group, is interesting because, according to Meyrick, it
possesses forms connecting the Pterophoridae with the more normal
Pyralids.

Crambidae, or Grass-moths, are amongst the most abundant

Lepidoptera in this country, as they include the little pale moths that
fly for short distances amongst the grass of lawns and pastures; they
fold their wings tightly to their body, and have a head pointed in front,
in consequence of the form and direction of the palpi. They sit in an
upright position on the stems of grass, and it has been said that this
is done because then they are not conspicuous. Perhaps: but it
would be a somewhat difficult acrobatic performance to sit with six
legs across a stem of grass. The larvae are feeders on grass, and
construct silken tunnels about the roots at or near the surface. The
Ancylolominae are included in Crambidae by Meyrick and Hampson.
Schoenobiinae[326] are included by Meyrick in Pyraustidae, but this
view appears not to meet with acceptance, and the group is more
usually associated with the Crambidae. Most writers place the
anomalous genus Acentropus as a separate tribe, but it is
associated by both Meyrick and Hampson with Schoenobius. This
Insect is apparently the most completely aquatic of all the
Lepidoptera, and was for long associated with the Trichoptera in
consequence of its habits and of the scaling of the wings being of a
very inferior kind. The males may sometimes be found in large
numbers fluttering over the surface of shallow, but large, bodies of
water; the females are rarely seen, and in some cases have no
wings, or have these organs so small as to be useless. The female,
it would appear, comes quite to the surface for coupling, and then
takes the male beneath the water. The larvae have the usual number
of Lepidopterous feet, and apparently feed on the leaves of plants
below water just as Lepidopterous larvae ordinarily do in the air.[327]
They have no trace of gills, and their mode of respiration is unknown.
A great deal has been written about these Insects, but really very
little is known. They are abundant, though local in many parts of
North and Central Europe; some of the females have, as we have
said, abbreviated wings, but how many species there are, and
whether the modifications existing in the development of the wings
are constant in one species or locality, are unknown as yet.

Fam. 42. Pterophoridae[328] (Plume-moths).—Elegant Insects of

small size, usually with the wings divided (after the fashion of a hand
into fingers) so as to form feathers: the extent of this division is
diverse, but the hind wings are more completely divided than the
front, which indeed are sometimes almost entire. The group is
placed by Meyrick in his Pyralidina, but there are many
entomologists who look on it as distinct. It consists of two sub-
families, Agdistinae and Pterophorinae, that have been treated as
families by many entomologists. The Agdistinae (of which we have a
British representative of the only genus Agdistes) have the wings
undivided. Pterophorinae have the hind wings trifid or (rarely)
quadrifid, the front wings bifid or (rarely) trifid. The larvae of the
Pterophorinae are different from those of Pyralidae, being slow in
movement and of heavy form, covered with hair and living exposed
on leaves; the pupae are highly remarkable, being soft, coloured
somewhat like the larvae, and also hairy like the larvae, and are
attached somewhat after the manner of butterfly-pupae by the
cremaster: but in some cases there is a slight cocoon. There is,
however, much variety in the larval and pupal habits of the
Pterophoridae, many having habits of concealment of divers kinds.
We have thirty species of these lovely Plume-moths in Britain. The
family is widely distributed, and will probably prove numerous in
species when the small and delicate Insects existing in the tropics
are more appreciated by collectors.

Fam. 43. Alucitidae (Orneodidae of Meyrick and others).—The

genus Alucita includes the only moths that have the front and hind
wings divided each into six feathers. Species of it, though not
numerous, occur in various regions. The larva and pupa are less
anomalous than those of the Pterophoridae, though the imago is
more anomalous. The caterpillar of our British A. polydactyla feeds
on the flower-buds of honey-suckle, and forms a cocoon. The moth
with wings expanded is about an inch across, and is a lovely object.
It is not rare, though seldom numerous.

Fam. 44. Tortricidae.—Moths of small size, with a rather ample

wing area, with the wing-fringes never as long as the wings are wide
(long across), the hind wings without a pattern: the anterior nervure
on the hind wings is simply divergent from that next to it, and the
internal nervure, 1b, is very evidently forked at the base. The larvae
inhabit their food, which may be rolled up or twisted leaves, or the
interior of fruits and herbs, or galls, or even roots; they exhibit less
diversity than is usual in other large series of moths; all have the
normal complement of sixteen legs. This group is a very extensive
one, but is much neglected owing to the great difficulties attending its
study; it is not recognised in Hampson's Table of families given on
p. 370, being there merged in Tineidae. It appears, however, to be a
really natural group, and it is not desirable to merge it in the
sufficiently enormous assemblage of the Tineidae till this has been
shown to be necessary by the light of a greater knowledge of the
external anatomy than we possess at present. The term
Microlepidoptera is frequently met with in entomological literature,
and should, we think, be confined to the two series Tortricidae and
Tineidae. The Pterophoridae, and even the Pyralidae, have been,
and still sometimes are, included under this term, but at present it
seems best to limit its application as is here suggested.
Three great divisions are at present recognised; these were formerly
called by Meyrick,[329] Tortricidae, Grapholithidae, Conchylidae;
subsequently,[330] he has adopted the names Tortricidae,
Epiblemidae, Phaloniadae. Lord Walsingham, who has devoted a
great deal of time and study to the elucidation of this most difficult
group, has suggested[331] that another change is desirable, and if so
the nomenclature will be:—1. Tortricidae [or Tortricinae, according to
the view that may be taken as to the group being family or sub-
family]; 2. Phaloniidae [= the formerly used name, Conchylidae]; 3.
Olethreutidae [= the formerly used name Grapholithinae =
Epiblemidae, Meyr.]. We have upwards of 300 species in Britain,
nearly 200 of which belong to the last division. The name Tortricidae
refers to the habit the larvae of these moths possess of rolling up
leaves, or twisting and distorting shoots and buds.

The mode in which leaves and shoots are twisted and rolled by the
very small larvae has been much discussed and is probably the
result of two or three distinct causes:—1, the immediate operations
of the larva; 2, the contraction of silk when drying; 3, changes in the
mode of growth of the parts of the vegetable, resulting from the
interference of the caterpillar. The larvae of this family that live in
fruits are only too widely (we will not say well) known. Stainton gives
as the habitat of Epinotia funebrana, "larva frequent in plum-pies";
the caterpillar of Carpocapsa pomonella (the Codling-moth) mines in
apples and pears, and its ravages are known only too well in widely
distant parts of the world where fruit-trees of this kind are cultivated.
C. splendana lives in acorns and walnuts; C. juliana in Spanish
chestnuts. Two, if not more, larvae live in the seeds of
Euphorbiaceous plants, and have become notorious under the name
of jumping-beans, on account of the movements they cause. As
these latter show no trace externally of being inhabited, the
movements are supposed to be a mysterious property of the seed;
they are really due to its containing a large cavity, extending, in one
direction of the seed, nearly or quite from skin to skin; in this the
larva makes a movement sufficient to alter the point of equilibrium of
the quiescent seed, or as a free body to strike some part of it. The
exact nature of the movements of the larva have not, we believe,
been ascertained. There are, at least, two species of these Insects,
and two plants harbouring them, known in the United States and
Mexico, viz. Carpocapsa saltitans living in the seeds of Croton
colliguaja and Grapholitha sebastianiae living in the seeds of
Sebastiania bicapsularis.

Fam. 45. Tineidae.—Small moths with the labial palpi more flexible
and mobile than in other moths; usually separated and pointed. Hind
wings frequently with very long fringes, the wing itself being
proportionally reduced in size, and in consequence pointed at the tip.
Larvae very diverse, almost always with habits of concealment. The
series of forms included under this head is very numerous, the
British species alone mounting up to 700, while the total described
cannot be less than 4000. This number, however, must be but a
fragment of what exists, if Mr. Meyrick be correct in supposing that a
single one of the divisions of the family—Oecophoridae—comprises
2000 species in Australia and New Zealand alone.

Fig. 207—Diplosara lignivora (Gelechiides). Hawaiian Islands.

As the study of these Insects is attended with great difficulty on

account of their fragility and the minute size of the great majority, it is
not a matter for surprise that their classification is in a comparatively
rudimentary state. We shall not, therefore, deal with it here. Neither
can we attempt to give any idea of the extreme diversity in the
colours, forms, and attitudes of these small Insects. The one shown
in Fig. 207, is remarkable on account of the great accumulation of
scales on the wings and legs. As regards the pointed wings and the
long fringes, we may remark that it is probable that in many of these
small forms the wings are passive agents in locomotion; a similar
condition of the wings is found in other very minute Insects, e.g.
Thysanoptera and Trichopterygidae; in all these cases the
framework of the wings is nearly absent: in some forms of the
Tineidae, Opostega, e.g. the nervules are reduced to three or four in
each wing. The variety in habits is as great as that of the external
form, and the larvae exceed in diversity those of any other group of
Lepidoptera. No doubt a corresponding amount of diversity will be
discovered in the details of structure of the perfect Insects, the
anatomy of but few having been at present investigated. Tinea
pellionella has two very important peculiarities in its internal
anatomy: the testes consist of four round follicles on each side, and,
contrary to the condition generally prevalent in Lepidoptera, are not
brought together in a common capsule: the two groups are, however,
not quite free (as they are in Hepialus), but are connected by a loose
tracheal network. Even more remarkable is the fact also pointed out
by Cholodkovsky[332] that the adult Insect possesses only two
Malpighian tubes instead of six, the normal number in Lepidoptera;
in the larva there are, however, six elongate tubes. The group of
forms to which Tinea belongs is remarkable for the diversity and
exceptional character of the food-habits of the larvae; species
subsist on dried camel's dung, various kinds of clothes, furs, and
hair, and even about horns of deer and horses' hoofs: one species
has been found in abundance in the hair of a live sloth, Bradypus
cuculliger, under circumstances that render it possible that the larva
feeds on the creature's hair, though it may feed on minute vegetable
matter found in the hair. The larva of Tinea vastella is occasionally
found feeding on the horns of living antelopes. Several species of
Tineidae are known to devour Scale-Insects.

Lita solanella is notorious for the ravages it commits on stored

potatoes. Quite a number of species live on cryptogamic matter, or in
old wood; Oinophila v-flavum feeds on the mould on the walls of
cellars, and is reputed to be injurious by occasionally also attacking
the corks of bottles containing wine. Oecocecis guyonella is said to
be the cause of galls on Limoniastrum guyonianum, a plant that,
growing in the deserts to the south of Algeria, is a favourite food of
camels, and is frequently entirely covered with sand. The deposition
of an egg by this moth is believed by Guénée[333] to give rise to a
gall in which the larva is entirely enclosed (like the larvae of the gall-
flies). Of Clothes-moths there are at least three species widely
distributed. Trichophaga tapetzella is perhaps entitled to be
considered the Clothes-moth; its caterpillar not only feeds on
clothes, but spins webs and galleries amongst them. Tinea
pellionella is also very common; its larva lives in a portable case,
while that of the third species, Tineola biselliella, forms neither a
case nor definite galleries. We have found this the most destructive
of the three at Cambridge. Clothes or valuable furs may be
completely protected by wrapping them in good sound paper in such
a way that no crevices are left at the places where the edges of the
paper meet. Garments that have become infested may be entirely
cleared by free exposure to air and sunshine.

Two species of Tinea have been recorded as viviparous, viz. Tinea

vivipara in Australia, and an undetermined species in South America.
The species of the genus Solenobia—in which the female is
apterous—are frequently parthenogenetic. The group Taleporiidae,
to which this genus belongs, is by some classified with Psychidae, in
which family, as we have pointed out, one or two parthenogenetic
forms are also known.

The larvae of Tineidae, though they do not exhibit the remarkable

armature found in so many of the larger caterpillars, are exceedingly
diverse.[334] Some are entirely destitute of feet (Phyllocnistis).
Others are destitute of the thoracic legs; Nepticula is in this case, but
it is provided with an increased number of abdominal feet, in the
form of more or less imperfect ventral processes. Some mine in
leaves, others live in portable cases of various forms. Some are leaf-
miners during their early life, and subsequently change their habits
by constructing a portable case. The genus Coleophora affords
numerous instances of this mode of life; the habits of these case-
bearers exhibit considerable variety, and there are many points of
interest in their life-histories. Change of habit during the larval life
has already been alluded to as occurring in many Lepidoptera and is
nowhere more strikingly exemplified than in certain Tineidae. Meyrick
mentions the following case as occurring in an Australian Insect,
Nematobola orthotricha;[335] the larva, until two-thirds grown, is
without feet, and is almost colourless, and mines in the leaves of
Persoonia lanceolata; but when two-thirds grown it acquires sixteen
feet, changes colour, becoming very variegate, and feeds externally,
unprotected, on the leaves. The cases of the case-bearing Tineids
are usually of small size, and do not attract attention like those of
Psychidae. A very remarkable one was discovered by Mr. E. E.
Green in Ceylon, and was at first believed to be formed by a Caddis-
worm. It has now been ascertained that the Insect forming it is the
caterpillar of Pseudodoxia limulus, a Tineid moth of the group
Depressariidae;[336] the case is composed of minute fragments of
moss, sand, and lichens; the anterior end is dilated into a shield-like
hood that covers and protects the anterior parts of the larva when
feeding; the food is mosses and lichens on rocks and trees. Before
pupating, the larva folds down the edges of the hood over the mouth
of the tube, like an envelope, fastening them with silk. The case is
fixed to the rock or other support and hangs there until the moth
appears.

Fig. 208—Pronuba synthetica. North America. A, Larva; B, C, pupa,

ventral and lateral aspects; D, female moth; E, head and part of
thorax of the female moth: a, labial palp; b, maxillary tentacle; c,
maxillary palp; d, proboscis; e, base of front leg. (After Riley.)
The family Prodoxidae consists of some Tineids, the larvae of which
feed in the pods and stems of the Yuccas of south-western North
America; they have the mouth of very unusual form (Fig. 208, E),
and some of them, by aid of this peculiar mouth, exhibit a
remarkable modification of instinct. The facts are chiefly known from
the observations of Riley[337] on Pronuba yuccasella, a moth living
on Yucca filamentosa; this plant has been introduced into our
gardens in this country, where it never, we believe, produces seed.
The Yuccas are not fitted for self-fertilisation or for fertilisation by
Insect agency of an ordinary kind. The progeny of the moth develops
in the pods of the plant, and as these cannot grow until the flowers
have been fertilised, the moth has the habit of fertilising the flowers
at the time she lays her egg in the part that is to develop into the
pod, and to be the food for her own progeny. The female moth first
visits the stamens, and collects, by the aid of the maxillae (which in
this sex are very remarkably formed),[338] a considerable mass of
pollen, which she holds by means of the peculiar maxillary tentacles;
she then lays an egg in the pistil, usually of some flower other than
that from which she has gathered the pollen; and after she has
accomplished this act she carefully applies the pollen she had
previously collected to the pistil, so as to secure the fertilisation of
the flower and the development of the pod.

The species of Prodoxus stand in a very peculiar relation to

Pronuba. They also live in Yuccas, and have habits similar to those
of Pronuba, with the important exception that, being destitute of the
requisite apparatus, they do not fertilise the Yucca-flowers, and are
thus dependent on Pronuba for the steps being taken that are
necessary for the rearing of the progeny of the two kinds of moth.
Hence the name of Yucca-moth has been bestowed on Pronuba,
and that of "bogus Yucca-moth" on the Prodoxus. The Pronuba we
figure is the largest and most remarkable species of the genus and
fertilises Yucca brevifolia; the larva is destitute of abdominal feet,
and in the pupa the spines on the back that exist in nearly all pupae
that live in stems are developed to an extraordinary extent. The
Yuccas do not flower every year, and the Prodoxidae have a
corresponding uncertainty as to their periods of appearance, passing
sometimes a year or two longer than usual in the pupal stage.

Fam. 46. Eriocephalidae.—This family has recently been proposed

for some of the moths formerly included in the genus Micropteryx.
[339] They are small, brilliant, metallic Insects, of diurnal habits, but
are very rarely seen on the wing, and it is doubtful whether they can
fly much. These little Insects are of peculiar interest, inasmuch as
they differ from the great majority of the Lepidoptera in at least two
very important points, viz. the structure of the wings and of the
mouth-parts. The mouth shows that we may consider that the
Lepidoptera belong to the mandibulate Insects, although in the great
majority of them the mandibles in the final instar are insignificant,
functionless structures, or are entirely absent, and although the
maxillae are so highly adapted for the tasting of sweets that it is
difficult to recognise in them the parts usually found in the maxilla of
mandibulate Insects.

Fig. 209.—Larva of Eriocephala calthella. (After Chapman.) A, Young

larva from side, × 50; B, portion of skin with a bulla or ball-like
appendage: C, abdominal foot of larva.

Eriocephala in both these respects connects the Lepidoptera with

Mandibulata: the mandibles have been shown by Walter[340] to be
fairly well developed; and the maxillae are not developed into a
proboscis, but have each two separate, differentiated—not elongated
—lobes, and an elongate, five-jointed, very flexible palpus. The
moths feed on pollen, and use their maxillae for the purpose,
somewhat in the style we have mentioned in Prodoxidae. The wings
have no frenulum, neither have they any shoulder, and they probably
function as separate organs instead of as a united pair on each side:
the modification of the anterior parts of the hind wing—whereby this
wing is reduced as a flying agent to the condition of a subordinate to
the front wing—does not here exist: the hind wing differs little from
the front wing in consequence of the parts in front of the cell being
well developed. There is a small jugum. These characters have led
Packard to suggest that the Eriocephalidae should be separated
from all other Lepidoptera to form a distinct sub-Order, Lepidoptera
Laciniata.[341] The wing-characters of Eriocephala are repeated—as
to their main features—in Hepialidae and Micropterygidae; but both
these groups differ from Eriocephala as to the structure of the
mouth-parts, and in their metamorphoses. Although Eriocephala
calthella is one of our most abundant moths, occurring in the spring
nearly everywhere, and being easily found on account of its habit of
sitting in buttercup-flowers, yet its metamorphoses were till recently
completely unknown. Dr. Chapman has, however, been able to give
us some information as to the habits and structure of the larvae, in
both of which points the creature is most interesting. The eggs and
young larvae are "quite unlike our ideas of a Lepidopterous Insect;"
the former have a snowy or mealy appearance, owing to a close
coating of minute rods standing vertically on the surface of the egg,
and often tipped with a small bulb. The larva lives amongst wet moss
and feeds on the growing parts thereof; it is not very similar to any
other Lepidopterous larva: Dr. Chapman suggests a similarity to the
Slug-worms (Limacodids), but Dyar is probably correct in thinking the
resemblances between the two are unimportant: the larva of
Eriocephala possesses three pairs of thoracic legs, and eight pairs of
abdominal appendages, placed on the segments immediately
following the thorax; on the under-surface of the ninth and tenth
abdominal segments there is a sucker, trifoliate in form; this is
probably really situate entirely on the tenth segment: the body bears
rows of ball-appendages, and the integument is beautifully
sculptured. The head is retractile and the antennae are longer than
is usual in caterpillars. This larva is profoundly different from other
Lepidopterous larvae inasmuch as the abdominal feet, or
appendages, are placed on different segments to what is customary,
and are of a different form. Unfortunately the pupa has not been
procured, but there is some reason for supposing that it will prove to
be more like that of Tineidae than like that of Micropterygidae.
The New Zealand genus Palaeomicra is only imperfectly known.
Meyrick considers it the "most ancient" Lepidopteron yet discovered;
and it would appear that its relations are with Eriocephala rather than
with Micropteryx. From information he has kindly given to us, we are
able to say that this moth possesses mandibles but no proboscis.

Fig. 210—Larva of Micropteryx sp. A, Ventral view of the larva,

magnified; B, the same, with setae unduly magnified. Britain.

Fam. 47. Micropterygidae.—Small moths of metallic colours,

without mandibles, with elongate maxillary palpi: without frenulum:
both wings with a complex system of wing-veins: on the hind wings
the area anterior to the cell is large, and traversed by three or four
elongate, parallel veins.

Fig. 211—Pupa of Micropteryx (semipurpurella?). A, Dorsal aspect; B,

C, D, views of head dissected off; B, profile; C, posterior, D,
anterior aspects; m, mandibles. Britain.

There are no mandibles, but there is a short, imperfect proboscis.

Larva (Fig. 210) without any legs, mining in leaves. The pupa (Fig.