SPILOSOMA. 129 



abdomen is yellow with a dorsal row of black spots, and a 

 similar row on each side. The tip of the abdomen is cream- 

 coloured. 



In the female all the wings are white, with numerous black 

 spots, which are very variable in their distribution, but there is 

 a marginal row on the hind-wings, which does not exist in the 

 other sex. The abdomen is coloured nearly as in the male. 

 The eyes and antennae are black in both sexes. 



The larva is said to be white when young, and to become 

 nearly black when full-grown, a transition to two extremes not 

 common even in a race of creatures subject to great variation 

 in regard to colour. In its intermediate stages the prevailing 

 hue is reddish-brown. When it has attained the period of its 

 growth at which we have figured it (Plate LXXXIV. fig. 3) it 

 is brownish-black, with two yellow lines along the sides and 

 a transverse series of orange-coloured spots on each segment. 

 From the back of each segment arises a scopiform tuft of 

 blackish hairs of considerable length. The cocoon is oblong 

 and of a yellowish-brown colour. We have figured the pupa 

 (Plate LXXXIV. fig. 4). 



In the European species of this Sub-family the wings are 

 shorter and rounder than in Estigmene^ and the abdomen does 

 not extend beyond the hind-wings. Hence they more resemble 

 the Sub-family Arctiincc in form. 



GENUS SPILOSOMA. 



Spilosoma, Stephens, 111. Brit. Ent. Haust. ii. p. 74 (1828); 

 Curtis, Brit. Ent. ii. pi. 92 (1825); Walker, List Lepid. 

 Ins. Brit. Mus. iii. p. 633 (1855) j Clemens, Proc. Acad. 

 Nat. Sci. Philad. i860, p. 531 (1861); Stretch, Zyg. & 

 Bomb. N. Amer. p. 130 (1872). 

 13 K 



