ARCTUD.E. SPILOSOMA. 75 



wings are more elongate, and are deeply speckled with black, and 

 tlieir bodies are spotted with the same colour, the spots being dis- 

 posed in longitudinal lines. The species vary much, and some of 

 the more remarkable varieties have been recorded as distinct species : 

 their spotted bodies, combined with the opacity of their M'ings, ex- 

 clusively of the structure of the palpi, &c. well distinguish them 

 from the otlier Arctiidse. 



Sp. 1. Menthastri. Alls alhidis, uid pallid} oclwaceis, piinctis numerosis sparsis, 

 UneoUsqiie apicis nfrls. (Exi^. alar. $ 1 unc. 6 — 9 lin.: ? 1 unc. 6—11 lin.) 



Bo. Menthastri. Fahricins. — Don. vi. pi. 189.— Sp. Menthastri. Steph. Catul. 

 No. 602G. 



AntenntE black : head and thorax white or ochraceous : abdomen luteous, with 

 the tip snow-white, the back Avith one, and the sides Avith two lines of black 

 dots: anterior wings whitish or ochraceous, irregularly spotted with black, with 

 an oblique series of abbreviated black lineolte : posterior wings white, with one 

 or two black spots : legs black : the femora and tibiiE fringed externally with 

 white hairs. 



Var. B. With the spots on the anterior wings very minute and distant. 



Var. y. "With the spots on the anterior wings large, and somewhat confluent. 



Var. S. As in var. y ; but the spots united into waving transverse striga?. 



Var. £. Plate 16. f. 3. — Anterior wings ochraceous, or white, with the base of 

 the costa and edges of the nerves at the base of the wing black, the space 

 between the nervures more or less filled in with black, the hinder margin some- 

 times spotted with black, at others immaculate : posterior wings more or less 

 spotted with black. 



t Var. r. Curtis, ii. pi 92.— Pale bufF-colour : anterior wings, with the costa 

 and edges of the nervures towards the base, black, the spaces between the 

 nerves on the posterior margin, and the margin itself, also black, with a few 

 ochraceous spots on the fifth, sixth, and seventh areolets : posterior wings as 

 in var. s. 



Caterpillar brown, faintly spotted with blue, with a yellowish dorsal line : it is 

 polyphagous, but prefers nettle and fruit trees: it appears in the autumn, and 

 changes in September to a reddish pupa, in a loose cocoon ; and the imago 

 appears in May. 



Less common than Sp. lubricepeda near London, though not rare, 

 except the varieties ; whether the two last are truly referrible to the 

 present insect I am not able to decide : var. £ seems to be not uncom- 

 mon near Manchester ; and Godart appears to give var. i^ as a variety 

 of Sp. Menthastri. " Kimpton."— l?ct^. G. T. Rudd. " Cambridge- 

 shire, common." — Rev. L. Jcnyns. " York and Newcastle-on- 

 Tyne."-~Tr. C. Hcmtson, Esq. " Epping.''~.M?-. //. Duublcdai/. 



v> 



