142 



Fig. 21. 



have ten species of Limacodes, or closely allied genera, but 



think some nearer to Heterogenea. 



Where do you place Platypteryx ? The larvae of our differ- 

 ent genera of the PlatypteryeidcB Steph. 

 vary a good deal. One is like Cerura, 

 but slenderer ; another is short and thick, 

 like a Limacodes, or like Abbot's drawing 

 of the larva of my 261. They surely 

 come amongst the Bombyces. In Abbot's 

 drawing is a species of which I have 

 sketched the larva and half the female. 

 The perfect insect is rose-colored, ex- 

 cepting the band from the apex of the 

 anterior wings and the posterior portion 

 of the hinder. There is a dark striga 

 across the base of the two wings, and two 

 sub-ocellated spots in the disk of the 

 Also a few red dots in the yellow of the lower 



Fig. 22. 



anterior ones. 



wings. 



I look with anxiety for your paper on the Bombyces. I have 

 employed Raddon to engrave a plate of the larvse of a few 

 Bombyces, and the imago, etc., of Abbot's Oiketicus. The 

 larva I sketched [in a previous letter] was from Abbot's draw- 

 ing of Phalcena epimenis. In form it is just like our Parthe- 

 nias, but rather stouter, and very different in color. Parthe- 

 nias has the first pair of abdominal prolegs shortest and almost 

 useless, and has a looping gait, but does not absolutely loop. 

 Abbot's drawing of Cyphocampa, if his be a Cypliocampa, has 

 but four abdominal legs. JZrebus, too, has a half-looping larva, 

 and, like Breplios, the first pair of abdominal legs short and 

 apparently useless. Some of the Catocalce have something of 

 this structure. A sketch in your next of the larva of Eudryas 

 grata would much please me, even if the eight legs are all 

 quite perfect. % I fancy it must go quite near to Acontia and 

 JSuphasia Steph., though it may be that this insect belongs to 



