/c 



1 1' I % 31 



759. 

 VENUSIA CAMBRICA. 



Order Lepidoptera. Fam. Phalaenida. 



Type of the Genus, Venusia Cambrica. 



Venttsia Curt. 



AntentKB inserted close to the eyes, on each side of the crown, 

 rather short, setaceous, scaly and bipectinated in the male (1), 

 the rays close, short, clavate and ciliated, becoming very short 

 towards and vanishing at the apex. 



Maxilla spiral, not so long apparently as the antennae (3). 

 Palpi very short, not projecting beyond the head, nearly hori- 

 zontal, slightly curved and scaly (4) , triarticulate ? 

 Head small subglobose, densely clothed with close scales (7, the pro- 

 file) : eyes moderate, oval. Thorax subglobose. Abdomen some- 

 what linear, the apex a little tufted in the male. Wings probably 

 forming a triangle in repose : superior subtrigonate-ovate : inferior 

 trigonaie-ovate : cilia shortish. Legs rather long and slender : 

 thighs rather long : tibiae, anterior short, with an internal spine, 

 the others long and slender, with a pair of short spurs at the apex, 

 the hinder the longest, with a pair also a little above the apex (8 j, 

 a hind leg) : tarsi 5-jointed, basal joint the longest : claws awe? pul- 

 villi minute. 



Cambrica. — Curt. Guide, Gen. 907^. 



Light bright gray, freckled with pale brown : antennae yellow- 

 ish-brown ; a transverse band on the forehead and the palpi 

 dark brown : superior wings with numerous sinuated strigse 

 forming patches on the costa : basal striga a black thin line, a 

 pale brown pair next ; another fine dark pair, not symmetrical, 

 before the middle, and a pair beyond it, the inner one black as 

 well as the nervures, where they intersect it, the other is broader 

 and yellowish-brown, and there is a pair of crenated brown 

 strigse towards the posterior margin, the points on the nervures 

 black, the outer striga faint ; a line of 7 sublunate brown spots 

 at the base of the cilia : inferior wings white with a delicate 

 pair of strigse across the middle, and a crenated pair towards 

 the margin, all darkest at the interior margin, 6 or 7 brown 

 lunate marks at the base of the cilia, which are white in all the 

 wings. 



In Mr. Dale's Cabinet. 



This pretty little moth appears to be so nearly allied to the 

 genus Zerynthia (pi. 296), that I should not have given a fi- 

 gure and description of it here, had it not been an undescribed 

 and very interesting species, from the approach which it makes 

 to Oporahia muUistrigaria; indeed I should have included it 



