160 HAUSTELLATA. — LEPIDOPTERA. 



simple in both sexes and ciliated ; sometimes a little serrated in the males : 

 head small, with a dense tuft of hair between the antennae : eyes small, naked : 

 wings generally entire, incumbent, anterior more or less castaneous : thorax 

 stout, pilose, with an abbreviated dorsal tuft towards the front : body generally 

 depressed, with the sides and apex considerably tufted: legs moderate; 

 femora not very pilose. Larva naked, or slightly hairy ; pupa subterranean. 



The Glsese of Hubner may be known from the foregoing genera 

 by their depressed bodies and bright castaneous hue ; and, like the 

 Caradrinse, their wings are very glossy : they are chiefly autumnal 

 insects, but the first species is vernal : by their flattened bodies 

 they resemble the Amphipyrse and Pyrophilse, but they may be 

 readily known from those genera by their stout, elongate antennse, 

 abbreviated horizontal palpi, central thoracic tuft, &c. Ochsen- 

 heimer has discarded Hubner's name for this genus, and applied 

 that of Cerastis ; his reason for so doing I am not aM'are of; but as 

 it is contrary to the precepts of the best naturalists to use the 

 names employed in other departments of nature — upon which point 

 Fabricius remarks strongly, " nomina absurda insectis plurimis ab 

 idiotis imposita sunt," instancing Cervus volans {Lucanus), Ursus 

 (Bombi^x), Leopardus (Sphinx), &c. — it is obviously advisable to 

 revert to the original name, as Cerastis was originally employed 

 to designate a serpent. 



A. The body scarcely depressed. (Antennae slightly serrated in the male.) 

 Sp. 1. rubricosa. Alis anticis rujis costd usque ad medium pallidiore maculis 



quatuorfuscis, ad apicem concolore punctis tribus albidis. (Exp. alar. 1 unc. 



4—6 lin.) 

 No. rubricosa. Wien. V. — Gl. rubricosa. Steph. Catal.part \i. p. 76. No. 6165. 



— No. rufa. Entom. Trans.pl. 5. Jig. sup. 



A beautiful and variable species : head, thorax, and anterior wings bright cas- 

 taceous red ; the two former immaculate, the latter, sometimes of a deeper 

 hue, and prettily marbled with bluish ; the costa generally pale from the 

 base to a little beyond the middle, with four distinct fuscous spots; the 

 apex concolorous with the wings, with three minute white dots ; the ordi- 

 nary strigae are rather obsolete, and of a paler hue than the wing; the an- 

 terior stigma is round and apparent, the posterior one rather large and 

 obscure: the posterior wings are reddish-brown, the cilia rufescent; the 

 abdomen is castaceous-red on its sides and apex. 



Caterpillar griseous, with a pale dorsal hue, each segment with two white dots; 

 it feeds on the Rumex acutus : the imago appears towards the end of March. 



Of this rare insect several specimens were captured at Beacham- 

 well in the spring of 1817, by J. Scales, Esq., who kindly supplied 

 me with a series : it was also taken about the end of March, 1820> 



