NOTODONTID^. PETASIA. 31 



The intensity of the colour, and apparent disposition of the markings, varies 

 considerably, scarcely two specimens occurring precisely similar; sometimes 

 the entire insect (except the abdomen) is suffused with dusky, at others it is 

 nearly white. 



Caterpillar green, with a bright orange-yellow lateral line, slightly dotted with 

 red : it feeds on the oak in September, and the imago is produced in June. 



Considerably more abundant than the foregoing, though far from 

 common : I have repeatedly taken the larva at Birch-wood; and the 

 insect likewise occurs at Coombe and Darenth woods. " Littleton 

 copse."— i^^u. G, T. Rudd. 



Genus XLV. — Petasia * mihi. 



Palpi short, compressed, straight, very hairy, biarticulate, the terminal joint 

 ovate, subacute : maxiUte nearly obsolete. Antennae elongated, bipectinated to 

 the apex in the males, subserrated and ciliated in the females : head moderate, 

 hairy, with two fascicles of elongate scales at the base of each antenna : thorax 

 not crested; abdomen slightly elongated, scarcely tufted at the apex: antirior 

 wings elongate, entire, Avith a patch of elongate scales in the middle of the 

 interior edge : posterior subovate : breast and femora very downy ; anterior 

 tibiae with a compressed lobe internally, and an acute, bent, glossy spine 

 exteriorly ; the posterior tibiae with spurs at the apex. Larva naked, fleshy, 

 with the anal segment gibbous : pupa subterranean. 



I have designated this genus from the habits of the larvae, which 

 (in common with those of the two following genera) assume, while 

 at rest, the attitude of those of the Sphingidie, and, in addition, 



f Sp. 3. Quernea. Alls griseo-cinereis, fasciis tribus undatis albis nigro niar- 



ginatis, lunulaque medii albd, posticis albis. (Exp. alar. 1 unc. 6 — 8 lin.) 

 Bo. Quernea. Fabricius. — Ch. Quernea. Steph. Catal. No. 5980. 



Antennae ferruginous: body griseous: anterior wings griseous-ash, with three 

 waved white strigae margined with black, with a central white lunule before 

 the posterior striga : posterior wings whitish. 



Caterpillar gibbous behind, green, with four yellow lines and dusky spiracles : 

 it feeds on the oak. 



Of the Bo. Quernea, Fabricius, I have not seen an indigenous specimen ; the 

 insect described by that name in Lepidoptera Britannica being evidently a 

 variety of Ch. Dodonea alone, as it does not possess the essential characteristics 

 of the white central lunule, and the two undulated white fasciae on the anterior 

 wings, and the white posterior wings, which are peculiar to Bo. Quernea- 



nsr«ir(a, pando. 



