244 LLOYDS NATURAL HISTORY. 



Harpy ia dicuspis^ Ochsenheimer, Schmett. Eur. iii. p. 26 



(1810); Duponchel, L^pid. France, p. 128, pi. 12, fig. 3 



(1836). 

 Cerura bicuspis, Kirby, Eur. Butterflies and Moths, p. 136 



(1880); Buckler, Larvae of Brit. Lepid. ii. pp. 62, 137, pi. 



32, fig. I (1887); Barrett, Lepid. Brit. Isl. iii. p. 83, pi. 



100, figs. 3, 3«-r, pi. loi, fig. I (1895). 



The Alder Kitten is found in most parts of Europe. It 

 measures rather less than i^ inch across the wings. 



It is white, the fore-wings with a dark grey band before the 

 middle, irregularly concave on both sides. This has to be dis- 

 tinguished from two other very similar British species, namely, 



The Alder Kitten. 



C. hermelina, Goeze (The Poplar Kitten) and C. furcula (The 

 Sallow Kitten). All have a dark grey thorax, with a whitish- 

 grey collar, and orange transverse streaks or spots, and light or 

 dark grey borders to the lighter abdomen. On the fore-wings 

 is a whitish basal area, with a transverse row of black dots, a 

 dark grey band bordered first with black and then with orange, 

 reaching to the middle of the wing, and between this and the 

 hind margin two or three deeply dentated dark transverse lines, 

 the last of which is dusted with orange. The hind-wings are 

 white in the male, pale grey in the female, with a faint band in 

 front of the hind margin. 



In C. bicuspis^ the white of the ground-colour is clearer than 



