26 THE entomologist's becobd. 



wings." The yellow gi-ouncl colour of the species of Xantliia is, 

 as 1 have before remarked, varied with darker hues and blotches, and 

 these are usually of a reddish, sometimes inclining to brown or pur- 

 plish colour ; and it is doubtful whether any Britisli sjjecies of Noctu^ 

 in their range of variation show more distinctly the gradation in the 

 natural genetic sequence of colour — yellow, orange, red and purple — 

 than do X. fulvago (cerago) and X. aurago. These two species are very 

 variable, whilst the other species usually included in tlie genus 

 ^anth'a, are, as a rule, not given to much variation either in colour or 

 markings. 



Hoporina croceago is well separated from Xanthia, although there 

 is a general tendency amongst collectors to include it among the " Sal- 

 low " moths ; and this brings me at once to the consideration of the 

 real nature of the alliance existing between these latter as represented 

 in Xanthia. It appears certain, that whatever definition we may choose to 

 make of the Xanthidce and their allies, based on the consideration of such 

 genera as Orthosia, Anchocelis, Glcea, &c., and represented by such species 

 as suspecta, lota, vaccinii and cerago (fdvago) in various directions, that 

 both croceago and citrago will have to be removed entirely from their 

 present location and altogether away from the genus Xanthia, as in- 

 cluding /(«?rfl</o and flavago. Thus, speaking broadly, Orthosia, Ancho- 

 celis, JDi/schorista and Glcea are all closely allied in different ways to 

 Xanthia ; but the two species in question not only show no tnie alliance to 

 the species with which they are grouped, but little to the genera among 

 which they are placed. The pupa of croceago is decidedly not Xanthicl 

 The true Xanthias have pale larva?, live in hiding (more or less) in 

 trees when young, descending to the gi'ound or hiding in bark when 

 older ; and having the peculiar markings and marblings characteristic 

 of the larvae oi fulvago, vaccinii, lota, &g. 



We, of course, recognise at once the general similarity of the mem- 

 bers included in Xanthia, and there is no doubt, that this " general 

 similarity " has led to the genus being constituted as at present ; but 

 when we come to examine the species more closely, even although we 

 still do so superficially, we note that even the arrangement of the 

 transverse lines is different in citrago from that in tlie other sj^ecies, 

 and even in atirago there appears a general tendency in the same direc- 

 tion. So far as markings go, fulvago, flavago and gilvago are very 

 closely alike ; aurago has the transverse lines very similar, but, whilst 

 in the three former species the elbowed line is lost in the transverse 

 fascia, in aurago it becomes distinctly the boundary of the blotch be- 

 tween it and the subterminal line, and, in the same manner, the com- 

 paratively indistinct subterminal of the first three are replaced in 

 aurago by a very distinct subterminal. This, however, is a minor 

 matter, but it sets one thinking, and so struck was I with the dissimilarity 

 of the markings of citrago that I appealed to Dr. Chapman about the 

 matter. He, at once, sent me drawings of the pupal anal segments of 

 a typical Xanthia and of citrago, and whilst the former is almost iden- 

 tical with Gloia ( Cerastis), the latter bears no resemblance to it whatever, 

 and is, in fact, much more like a terminal of Cuspidia (one of the sec- 

 tions of Acronycta) than anything with which it is usually classed. It 

 is not even like those of Tceniocampa, which are much like those of 

 Hadena, and very distinct from those of Orthosia (Glcea, Xanthia, etc.). 

 I feel satisfied that citrago has no real affinities with Xanthia, and that 



