Publ. 11. 11. 1910. CERYX; CALLITOMIS; DYSAUXES. By Dr. A. Seitz. 41 



S. xanthoma Leech (9 g). The yellow spots on the thorax small and dull, pale yellow, and abdomen xanthoma. 

 vvitli 7 very narrow yellow bands, the wings black-brown with a purple gloss; the hyaline spots not larger 

 tlian in phegea, dull in colour. Central China. 



2. Genus: Ceryx WalJgr. 



Closely allied to the preceding genus, but consisting mostly of smaller, slenderer insects, the only 

 Palearctic species being one of the most robust. Distinguished from Synlomis by the greater reduction 

 of the venation of the hindwing, the upper median being also absent. The hindwings therefore have still 

 more the appearance of being unimportant appendages to the comparatively broad forewings. On the 

 wing Ceryx consequently somewhat resembles Diptera, and this similarity is increased by the fact that the 

 movement during flight is undulating and dancing. In Hampson's classification the genus contains 

 39 species, some of them minute, and is distributed over India, especially the ^Malayan and Papuan 

 Archipelagos, as well as Northern Australia and Ethiopian Africa. Only one species, which is distributed 

 over India and South China, extends into the Palearctic region in Kashmir. It is worth noticing that 

 already Fabhioius called a species of this genus ,,Zygaena diptera" evidently considering the reduction 

 of the hindwings as the most important charcteristic of the insect. Nothing is known about the early 

 stages. The moths often vary greath' in one locality. They generally fly about '2 m. above the ground, 

 on sunny roads and open places in the woods. While the species of Syntomis are numerous on Um- 

 bellifers, I never saw a Ceryx sucking at a flower; but their strongly developed prol)oscis proves that 

 this occurs; perhaps they more often frequent the blossoms of trees and shrubs than of herbs. Not one 

 of the numerous specimens which I studied in Nature was abundant. 



C. itnaon Cr. {= fusiformis Walk., approximata Walk.) (9 h). ^'er^' similar to Syntomis phegea, and imaon. 

 with the same yellow band on the 1st and 5th segments, but smaller and slenderer, the spots hyaline, not 

 white, and much larger than in phegea, or the likewise similar ,S'. fortwiei. The hyaline spots moreover 

 vary in size and shape; they may be partially i-educed — sargania ButJr. — or may occupy the greater sargania. 

 portion of the hindwing ■ — artina Builr. — or may nearly disappear altogether — mota Sicinh. arlina. 



3. Genus: Callitoniis Buth. 



This genus consists of half a dozen rath'^r different Syntomids, which are distinguished from other 

 Syntomidae by a covering of short hairs on the surface of the wings. In contrast with the preceding 

 genus the hindwings are more rounded, and are larger in the Palearctic forms in jiroportion to the fore- 

 wings. North India and Java, a less closely allied species in Celebes. 



C. leucosoma Buth-. (9 h). Abdomen ringed with 3'ollow, wings dull dark brown, with light spots, leucosoma. 

 Kashmir. 



C. syntomoides Butlr. Similar, generally darker, hindwing with a smaller spot at the base; abdomen sj/iitomoidps. 

 not ringed with yellow, but with only two yellow belts on segments 1 and 5, so that ther<^ is a 



slight resemblance to Syntomis phegea. Also in Kashmir. 



4. Genus: Dysaiixes Hh7i. 



This genus contains some rather small moths with orange-yellow abdomen, along the back of 

 which there is a row of small black dots. Head very small, strongly resembling that of Lithosids in shape; 

 tongue strongly developed, palpi porrect, but short; antennae finely ciliate, these ciliae being short in 

 true Dysaiixes. Forewings dark brown, nearly always with some small whitish hyaline spots; hindwings 

 generally orange like the abdomen, and edged with a dark colour. If we adopt the genus as conceived 

 by Hampson, the species only occur in Europe, Anterior .\sia, Mauretania, Madagascar, and the Mau- 

 ritius. But in Madagascar a large number of similar Syntomids occur, all having brown forewings with 

 whitish spots, and orange hindwings with dark margins, which are closely allied in spite of small dif- 

 ferences in the antennae and venation (Micronaclia, Stictonaclia, Thyrosticta), and other very similar forms 

 occur in Ethiopian Africa, many of which have the colouring of Dysauves, but reach the size of Calli- 

 morpha dominula. The larvae are blackish grey with light warts, thin tufts of hair and light dorsal stripe; 

 they live on lichens in the summer, and can run exceedingly fast. The pupae in a loose cocoon. The 

 moths are on the wing in the hot sunshine on waste fields and on slopes, and are fond of spots over- 

 grown with broom and heather. 



D. punctata F. (= famula Godt., serva Hbii., confamula Hbii., ancilla var. Esp.) {9 i). Forewing punctata. 

 dark brown, two white spots on the disc and three before the apex, the upper one standing alone. Hind- 

 wing orange, margin dark brown. Southern Europe, northward as far as Burgundy, Alsace, Vallais, 

 Southern Tyrol, Hungary, to the Ural Mts., Asia Minor, Armenia and Turan. — In hyalina Frr. (9 i), hyalina. 



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