PLUME-MOTHS OF CEYLON. 23 



OXYPTILUS VAUGHANI, 71. S. 



$. Expanse 105 mm. Palpi long, slender, curved, sickle- 

 shaped, smooth ; white, irregularly mottled with fuscous ferrugi- 

 nous ; terminal joint acute, longer than second. (Antennae want- 

 ing. ) Head dark ferruginous fuscous, vertex covered with a loose tuft 

 of elongated erected scales which do not form a regular cone. Thorax 

 dark ferruginous fuscous ; pectus pale sulphur-yellow. Abdomen ; 

 first segment and base of second segment pale sulphur-yellow, 

 second, third, and fourth segments deep chestnut-bronze-brown, 

 apical margin of fourth segment edged with a narrow transverse 

 band of brilliant white scales, fifth segment thickly irrorated with 

 white scales so as to form a distinct broad transverse bar across the 

 abdomen, terminal segments deep reddish-purple ; anal tuft long, 

 apex yellowish-white. Legs dark ferruginous-fuscous, narrowly 

 banded transversely with Avhite ; spurs long, equal ; posterior 

 tibiae with small clusters of short dark fuscous spines near base and 

 on origin of spurs. Fore wing cleft from § ; elongated, narrow at base, 

 broadly expanded outwardly ; first segment rather narrow, apex 

 acute, termen concave, oblique, anal angle distinct ; second segment 

 posteriorly dilated, apex produced (not extending beyond anal 

 angle of first segment), termen concave, oblique ; deep chestnut- 

 brown, thickly irrorated with ferruginous and thinly sprinkled 

 throughout with minute patches of lilacine-whitish scales ; costal 

 edge dark fuscous ; a small whitish dot on costa at \, a small whitish 

 transverse costal spot at \ of first segment, and a small white sub- 

 apical spot ; second segment with a small whitish dot on anterior 

 margin at | ; cilia ochreous- white, with blackish patches at angles 

 of both segments suffused with blackish within cleft, with black 

 bars on dorsum at § and § and a black dorsal scale-tooth at \. Hind 

 wing cleft firstly from §, secondly from near base, segments very 

 narrow and linear ; dark ferruginous fuscous, third segment with a 

 white bar at \ and a minute apical dorsal scale- tooth just beyond it ; 

 cilia ochreous- white, fuscous on first segment and towards apex of 

 second, those of third segment very long and delicate. 



Type 6 (No. 6,459) in Coll. Bainbrigge Fletcher. 



Locality. — Ceylon, Province of Uva, Madulsima, Cocogalla 

 estate (4,000 feet) ; February, 1907, at light (W. Vaughan). 



I have much pleasure in naming this species after Mr. Wm. 

 Vaughan, to whom I am indebted for this and many other " plumes." 



Oxyptilus vaughani seems closely related to 0. peltastes, Meyr. ~ ' tMfW ^ 

 (T. E. S., 1907, 479), but differs in the distinct band on the abdomen .\e n ' 

 and in the white-banded legs. Both these species seem to approach it - 

 very nearly to the members of the lately-described genus Xyroptila, {■> J<^i¥ 

 Meyr., and will probably have to be removed from the genus Oxy- ^te "^^^ 

 ptilus ; but until the exotic Oxyptilids are better known it seems to ' ^' 



me that no good purpose will be served by separating up the group. 



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