36 Transactions, — Zoolocnj. 



PLUSIAD^. 



A. Eyes with marginal cilia .. .. ..13. Plusia. 



B. „ without cilia. 



1. Antennae in male bipectinated . . . . 17. Rhapsa. 



2. „ ,, filiform. 



a. Tarsi in male strongly thickened with dense 



scales . . . . . . . . 16. Dasypodia. 



b. Tarsi in male not thickened. 



i. Terminal joint of pal^ji rather long 14. Ophideres. 

 11, ,, „ short . . 15. Achaea. 



13. Plusia, Tr. 



Eyes naked, margins ciliated. Antennfe in male filiform, 

 very shortly ciliated. Thorax with large double posterior crest. 

 Abdomen with dorsal crests towards base. 



Larva 12-legged, feeding externally; pupa in a silken 

 cocoon. 



A cosmopolitan, yet not very large genus. 



59. Plus, eriosoma, Dbld. 



[Plusia eriosoma, Dbld., Dieff. N. Zeal. 285, Butl., Voy. Ereb., pi. x., 1, 2 ; 

 P. argentifera, Gn., Noct. vi., 352.) 



Male, female. — 32-36 mm. Head, palpi, and thorax fuscous, 

 mixed with darker and ferruginous. Antennae greyish-ochreous. 

 Abdomen grey, in male with whitish-ochreous lateral tufts of 

 long bans beyond middle, and apical tuft black beneath. Legs 

 grey, irrorated with whitish-ochreous. Forewings elongate- 

 triangular, costa almost straight, apex obtuse, hindmargin 

 waved, obliquely rounded, anal angle slightly prominent ; fus- 

 cous ; sub-basal line straight, golden-white, not reaching 

 inner margin, followed by a blackish - bi-onze spot in disc; 

 first line straight, golden - white, angulated and interrupted 

 beneath costa ; median space suffused with deep bronze 

 on dorsal half, containing a golden - white ?-shaped longi- 

 tudinal mark and small oval spot beyond it beneath middle 

 of disc ; second line nearly straight, obscurely paler, dark- 

 margined ; an oblique sub-apical streak terminated by a straight 

 sub-marginal line before upper half of hindmargin, and a spot 

 on anal angle deep bronze : cilia grey, irrorated with whitish. 

 Hindwings fuscous grey, darker posteriorly ; cilia ochreous- 

 whitish, with a cloudy grey hne. 



Vur. a. Golden-white discal spots wholly absent. 

 Larva polyphagous, on various garden plants. 

 Taranaki, Napier, Wellington, and Nelson ; rather com- 

 mon. Also occurs commonly in Eastern Australia. P. chalcites, 

 Esp., from Europe, India, and Madagascar, appears to differ 

 in having the hindwings yellowish anteriorly, but is other- 

 wise almost exactly similar. 



