Publ. 20. IV. 1910. PARASEMIA. By Dr. A. Seitz. 81 



E. divaS'^^rr. (= haberhaueri JZp/t.) (16 d). Hindwing usually without any spots, forewing with very diva. 

 few. Head, thorax and abdomen dull yellowish white, with very sparse dark markings. In Central Asia, 

 Turkestan and the Tian-Shan. 



46. Genus: Paraseniia Hhn. 



Distinguished from the preceding genus by the lunger pectinations of the antennae of the ^. Rather 

 small moths with slendei- (^(^ and stout-bodied ?$; forewing fairly exactly triangular, dark brown or black 

 with yellow or white stripes, hindwing red or yellow with black markings, only in aberrative specimens 

 l)lack or white. Head and thorax covered with dense and shaggy but soft hair; palpi short, porrect, with 

 l)rush-like liair beneath. Eyes large, but partly concealed in the wool. Antennae of medium length, bipectinate 

 in the J. Thorax witb dark stripes in the middle and on the tegulae. Legs short, tibiae with long spurs. 



The genus only contains one species, but this is distriliuted over a larg<* portion of Europe, Asia 

 and North America. 



P. plantaginis L. (lOd.e). This moth is extraordinarily variable. Normally it has lilack forewing pJontagmis. 

 in both sexes, with moderately broad, ivory yellow bands. The hindwing is yellow in the q, with an 

 irregular nuxrginal band which is often interrupted, and 2 or 3 submarginal spots. The basal portion of 

 the hindwing bears black streaks at the margin of the cell, and before the anal margin, in the $ the 

 hindwing is red above with the base strongly black. It occurs in all temperate countries of the Northern 

 Hemisphere, but is often absent in the plains of the southern districts, being found in the plains only 

 in the North. From North Scandinavia to Andalusia and the Caucasus, from England to Japan and in 

 America in the West of the United States. Numerous aberrations have been found and named, which 

 often occur predominantly, often only exceptionally among typical specimens. In the Alps especially very 

 different forms occur in the same locality: ab. hospita S'c/ii//- (16 e) is a form of the ^, often occurring hospita. 

 also in the hills, in which the ground-colour of the hindwing is pure white instead of orange yellow. 

 The white ground-colour may also have much increased in quantity, the dark margins of the cell being 

 obsolescent; this is the case in ab. bicolor Bdtz. In the alpine ab. matronalis Frr. (16 e), the hind- ^^''°}°^'- ,. 

 wing is entirely black with the exception of some hght submarginal markings, the bands of the 

 forewing also being narrower. In ab. elegans Bdtz. (16 e) in which the light markings of lioth elegans. 

 wings are often reduced to slight traces, the ground-colour of the liindwing is wliite. — In 

 the $$ the colour of the hindwing may be yellow {flav ipeniiis) or pink {roseipenni.s) instead of red, 

 or may also gradually change from yellow in the basal half to red in the outer half. In 

 ab. albulae KiUan the ivory-yellow of the forewing is strongly tinged with reddish, ab. subalpina Schaw. ""^"'"''.• 

 forms a transition to matronalis, the basal half of the hindwing being black, the outer half j^ellow {^) 

 or red ($). ali. borussia .S'c/f«M'. is the form of subalpina corresponding to hospita, the ground-colour of the borussia. 

 hindwing being white. In ab. nycticans Men. (= me\&n Christ.) (16 e) the black is only slightly increased nyclicans. 

 on the forewing, but so much s(_) on the hindwing that its upper side presents a perfectly uniform black 

 surface. If both wings are uniformly black we have the rare ab. raetzeri Schaw. Of other aberrations raelzeri. 

 we mention: ab. nigrociliata <S"c/(o«'., which is the name for all specimens with black fringes, ab. henricho- nigrociliula. 

 viensis .S'c/»//<^ are yellow specimens in which the white streaks and band of the forewing are mort' or less Dignsis 

 confluent, ab. brunnescens .9c/taii'. (16 e) has in the (5* the j'ellow colour of the hindwing suffused with brown — brunneseens. 

 and in ab. rufa Tutt the hindwing is red. — ■ Of course, several aberrational characters may be found in rufa. 

 one specimen, so that double names result, such as lutea-obsoleta Tutt, iu which the central markings Mea- 

 are absent, while the ground-colour of the hindwing is yellow. — In the Asiatic districts of its area the 

 moth differs from the European forms, but does not vary individually to the same extent as, e. g., in 

 many localities in the higher Alps. — In North Asia, especially Kamschatka, Amurland, Central Siberia, 

 the white colour of the forewing is nearly always increased, the ground-colour of the hindwing being 

 white (cj) or yellow ($); this is the form floccosa Grae.s. — In Japanese specimens the markings of tha floccosa. 

 forewing are sometimes snowy white instead of greenish white or ivory; Butler names such specimens 

 macromera (from which he moreover separates an ab. leucomera). However, this variety occurs aber- macromera. 

 latively also outside Japan in other localities of the Palearctic region. On the other hand, ab. melano-melanomera. 

 mera Butl:, also described from Japan, are darker specimens which have the ground-colour of the hindwing 

 white in the outer half and stand between hospita and horussia. — The white ma^' be so much increased 

 that the black is reduced to narrow marginal spots, the wing being otherwise quite white ; this is the case 

 in ab. confluens Schaiv. (16 f). — In Tibet occurs a constant, rather small form, sifanica Gr.-Grsh. (16 f), '^?«/^'."'»'S- 

 here the ground-colour of the hindwing is alike in both sexes, and in the cell of the forewing there is an 

 oval light spot. — Very similar is altaica ,S7gfr. i. 1.- (16 f), from the Altai; little larger, but easily distin- altaica. 

 guished by the hindwing, which is scarceh' more extended black in the $ than in the i^. — The opposite 

 is the case in <^(^ from the Orknevs, in which the edges of the cell and the submarginal spots of the 

 hindwing are so extended and the ground-colour of the latter so dark that the o might be mistaken . , 

 for a $. I call this form insularum /orw. «or. (16 1). — In caucasica .^/c». (16 f) the light inner marginal caucasica. 



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