SPILARCTIA. By Dr. A. Seitz. 85 



ohliiiui' )-i)\v wliicli runs') to two thirds of tho inner margin, being sometimes straight, sometimes shghtly 

 curved; abdomen orange-yellow with black dorsal spots. On the underside both M'ings bear strong median 

 spots, and the forewing a straight oblique line which begins behind the cell and runs to the submedian 

 vein. Throughout Europe with the exception of the extreme North, and in North Asia; from the coasts 

 of the North Sea, Scandinavia and North Russia to the Mediterranean and from England to the Amur. — 

 In different localities of Europe interesting melanistic forms occur, from which varioush' modified forms 

 have been obtained by crossing with similar specimens and with normal ones*). The most important locali- 

 ties where these aberrations are found are the coasts of the Channel and the Low German coast with 

 its islands, ab. zatima Stoll (15 a) has the internervular spaces at the forewing and hindwing brownish; zatima 

 in ab. deschangei Dep. (15 a) the whole surface is grey-brown with the exception of the narrow white deschangei. 

 veins and tlie thorax. The thorax, moreover may, also be blackened, this form being sold as ab. uni- 

 color Stgr. i. 1. (15 a), but must receive another name, as Hombekg has already called the entire 

 ly white form by that name in 1907. I therefore propose the name totinigra nom. nov. for the uniformly iolinirjra. 

 dark specimens. There occur all the transitions to these extreme forms (eboraci Tugw.), which have also ebomci. 

 been obtained by cross-breeding. These as a rule bear on the unchanged light cream ground-colour black 

 streaks at the margins of the forewing and on the liindwing (ab. inlermedia Htdfss.). When the increase 

 of the black marking is accompanied by transverse bands on the forewing the form ab. fasciata Tugw. [asciata. 

 results. In contradistinction to this increase of the black markings a reduction of it may also be mentioned : 

 ab. unicolor Romh. (= denigrata Schiiltz) in which all the black dots are absent with the exception of the unicolor. 

 costal marginal spot nearest the base. — Egg round, silver-grey. Larva grey-brown, with j^ellowish red 

 hairs, only slightly lighter dorsal stripe and yellow-brown head. In the autumn on low-growing plants. 

 PujJa reddish brown, hibernating. Moth in May and June, nowhere rare. 



S. rhodosoma Tur. (15 b). In this species, only lately discovered in Sicily, the black of the rhodosoma. 

 upperside is increased by a larger number of the spots; but the species is especially distinguished Ijy the 

 bright red abdomen, which in hibricipeda is always orange-yellow like the forewing. 



S. guttata ErscJi. This form, which is only known to me from Fedtschenko's Reise, is creamy gultala. 

 yellow in colour. Thorax spotted with black, abdomen orange, above with black rows of dots. Forewing 

 with numerous small dark dots, which are partially arranged in rows and in which the one at the lower 

 angle of the cell is V-shajied. Hindwing with dark median spot and two small spots near the anal angle. 

 From Sarafshan in Central Asia. 



S. melanostigma Ersch. Head, thorax and forewing light yellowish white ; forewing with black dots "^^f "„""' 

 and dashes arranged similarly to those of liibncil)eda; at the base of the costa a black streak reaching 

 almost to the middle of the costa; a spot in the middle of the cell and a dot at its apex; below the costa 

 beyond the middle five black dots and a row of eight similar ones from tho apex. Hindwing ivory white, 

 with a black dot in the centre and two near the anal angle. From Turkestan. 



S. obliqua Walk. This widely distributed species has the forewing creamy j'ellow, the hindwing ohliqua. 

 lighter and the abdomen scarlet or orange-yellow. In the (J ^small black spots on both wings varying 

 in size and number; in nearly all (^{J there are present an interrupted submarginal row on both wings, 

 an oblique shadowy lino on the forewing, and a discal spot on the hindwing; in the $ the forewing 

 sometimes only bears an oblique line from the apex towards the inner margin. Throughout South and 

 East Asia, from Kashmir to North Japan and Corea, and in India southward to Travancore and Burma. 

 The moth varies strongly; beside a number of forms produced by the variation of the black spots, which 

 have not received distinctive names and do not deserve any, several geographical races have been separ- 

 ated, such as hoirqun from North India, nydia from Nepal, iodara from the Nilghiris, etc. Only the Pale- 

 arctic forms concern us here. — dalbergiae Moore (15 b), from Kashmir, has dull-coloured wings and dalbergiae. 

 orange-yellow abdomen. — ione Butl. (15 h) has the abdomen scarlet with the exception of the yellow tip, ionc 

 and the basal area of the hindwing light grey. Hokkaido, Japan. — mollicula Bidl., from Hakodate, also moUicula. 

 has the abdomen red, but the basal area of the liindwing is strongly suffused with purple-red al)ove; 

 the oblique shadowy line of the forewing is absent in the $. — This line is present in the $ of bisecta biseda. 

 Leech (= mandarina Moore) (15 b), from Nagasaki and the opposite China; but this insect has the ground- 

 colour of the forewing much duller, as in dalbergiae, from which it is, however, at once distinguisheil 

 by the scarlet abdomen. 



S. casigneta Roll. (= sanguinalis Moore, sagittifera Moore) (15 b). Strongly resembles rhodosoma, casignela. 

 but the black colour at the base of the costa is absent. The species is easily recognised by the underside, 

 where the disc of the forewing is suffused with bright purple-red. Distributed from Kashmir over Tibet 

 to Western China; also in the Indian Himalayas, where the species is very abundant. It varies strongly, 

 and Hampson mentions specimens with the thorax black instead of orange-yellow. — seriatopunctata Motsch. ™^"!g/^ 

 (= striatopunctata Oberth.) (15 c). Also very closely allied to rhodosoma, and probably not specifically 



') Some recent authors consider Linse-s lubricipeda to be the insect generally known as mcHthasIri Esp. 

 But as the two names are employed in the whole Uterature in the usual sense, an alteration can only lead 

 to confusion. 



-) Cf. Standfuss, Handb. der palaarkt. Grossschmetl. II. ud. page 307. 



