NOCTUIDiK. XYLINA. 169 



subovate, the two ether joints of nearly equal length, the basal rather 

 stoutest: maxillcs as long as the antennae. Antenna simple, more or less 

 ciliated in the males, rarely subserrated: head small, with a dense frontal 

 crest : eyes naked, rarely pubescent : thorax quadrate, with a central anterior 

 crest, the shoulders sometimes prominent: legs incumbent; anterior long, 

 narrow, sublinear, obsoletely dentate on the hinder margin, posterior short : 

 body rather short, with the back more or less elevated with a carina, which is 

 sometimes crested ; the apex with a small tuft in the male, rather acute in the 

 female. Larva naked or slightly pilose : pupa foUiculated, its apex unidentate. 



Ochsenheimers's, or rather Treitschke's, concise definition of this 

 genus is so truly general and indefinite, that it will clearly include 

 a host of species that he has placed elsewhere ; it is consequently 

 difficult to say which is the typical species : I shall, therefore, 

 (though perhaps improperly) employ the term Xylina, as long since 

 printed in my Catalogue, to designate such species of the group in 

 question as are distinguished by the characters above given, and 

 which may be readily known by the following external marks : 

 elongate, sublinear, obsoletely dentate anterior wings, quadrate 

 slightly crested thorax; somewhat abbreviated body, slightly de- 

 pressed in the females, with its apex subtriangular ; exposed terminal 

 joint to the palpi, and incumbent wings : in some respects this 

 genus is remotely allied to Cucullia, but the metamorphosis is 

 widely different, and the pupa is destitute of the singular appendage 

 which forms so conspicuous a character in those of the Cuculliae. 



A. Eyes pubescent. (Antennae of males subserrate.) 



Sp. 1. conspicillaris. Alls anticis cinereo fusco nigroque nebulosis, marginem, 

 interiorem versus albicantibus, posticis albidis, fusco-venosis. (Exp. alar. 

 1 unc. 6 — 7 lin.) 



Ph. No. conspicillaris. Linne. — Xy. conspicillaris. Steph. Catal. part u. p. 78. 

 No. 6182.— Ph. No. leuconota. Don. xiii. pi. 453. / 3. 



Head hoary, thorax the same, or whitish-ash, transversely striated anteriorly, 

 with a dusky longitudinal dorsal vitta: anterior wings obsoletely striated, 

 deep fuscous black, with the inner margin generally more or less broadly 

 whitish, united to an interrupted oblique striga, reaching nearly to the apex 

 of the costa ; siigmata obscure, a third, or teliform one, sometimes present, 

 their margins alone conspicuous ; posterior wings whitish or white, with a 

 narrow dusky marginal border ; the nervures also dusky; cilia white. 



Var. /S. Steph. Catal. No. 6183. — Head and thorax pale hoary-ash, the latter 

 immaculate : anterior wings as in the last, with a large ovate pale ashy- white 

 patch on the costa, reaching from the anterior stigma to the hinder margin. 



This rare insect varies considerably ; in some examples the anterior wings are 

 nearly of an uniform cinereous, striated with a deeper hue, as in Xy. pulla: 

 in others the colours are very dark. 



