110 HAUSTELLATA. — LEPIDOPTERA. 



I have captured this insect in the vicinity of London ; first in a 

 field near Coombe-wood, on the 20th June, 1810, and subsequently 

 near Darenth-wood : of var. /3, I have seen three specimens only, 

 which were reared from larva; taken in the latter habitat, where the 

 Wild Liquorice abounds. 



Sp. 6. Filipendulse. Alis anticis viridi-cyaneis fusco-ciliatis, maculis sex rubris, 

 posticis rubris margine tenue nigra, abdomine atro immaculato. (Exp. alar. 

 1 unc. — 1 unc. 6 — 7 lin.) 



Sp. Filipendulae. Linne. — Bon. 1 pi. 6. — An. Filipendulae. Steph. Catal. 



Anterior wings of a green-blue, with six red spots : two at the base, two placed 

 obliquely across the disc, and two nearly parallel with the last, at the apex; 

 underside similar: posterior deep red, with a very narrow blue-black mar- 

 ginal band : cilia of all the wings brownish glossed with green. 



Var. /3. With the two discoidal spots of the anterior wings united. 



Var. y. The two apical spots alone united. 



Var. S. The same as var. jS, and with the two apical spots also united, forming 

 two oblique red bars. 



Var. £. The four basal spots united longitudinally by a narrow red streak. 



Var. Z- AH the spots united into a narrow flame-Uke red dash. 



Caterpillar yellow, with three rows of larger black spots on the back, and a row 

 of smaller ones on each side : head and anterior legs black, the rest yeUow. It 

 feeds on the Plantain (Plantago), Trefoil fTrifo/mra J, Dandelion (Leon- 

 todon Taraxacum), Mouse-ear Hawkweed (Hieracium PilosellwJ, Quake 

 grass (Briza minor), &c. The chrysaUs is yellow, with the head, wing- 

 sheaths, and tip black. 



An insect of general occurrence, being found equally abundant 

 in the North, in Devonshire, South Wales, &c, as in the metropo- 

 litan district : its time of appearance is towards the end of June, or 

 the beginning of July, and it affects fields and meadows by the 

 sides of woods. 



Family XL— SPHINGID^, Leach. 



Antennce prismatic, sometimes serrated towards the middle, ciliated slightly in 

 the males, terminated by a scaly seta, or naked filiform appendage: palpi 

 short, three-jointed, densely clothed with hair or scales, the terminal joint 

 minute: abdomen conical, not tufted at the apex. Larvcs exposed, cylin- 

 dric or attenuated anteriorly, with a horn on the last segment, naked, some- 

 times granulated, the sides frequently with oblique or longitudinal stripes : 

 pupa subterranean, or subfoUiculated. 



This family embraces some of the largest of the European Lepi- 

 doptera, which are no less distinguished by their immense bulk than 

 by the beauty and agreeableness of their colours, which, although 



