SPILOSO.MA. By Dr. A. Seitz. 87 



dot. East China (Ning-po, Kiu-kiang) and Japan, on the Jlain Island and near Nagasaki. Not common. 

 In June and July. 



S. lewisi Butl. (15 e). Thorax and forewing dark grey-brown; the former with white smears, the lemsi. 

 latter with white veins and angulate, somewhat branching, longitudinal stripes. Hindwing yelloM'ish, with 

 brownish grey discal and marginal spots. Head white; abdomen scarlet, with Idack dots. In Japan, not 

 rare on the Main Island; also in West China. 



S. rubilinea 3/oore (15 e). Forewing entirely earth-brown, faintly marked with small black dots; rubilmea. 

 hindwing light yellow, tinged with red, with black discal and submarginal spots. Al)domen carmine, 

 a stripe of black spots dorsally. In ab. discinigra Moore the liasal area of the hindwing is suffused with discinigra. 

 Itlaekish. West China. Also distributed in Northern India. 



S. leopardina KoU. (= divisa Walk., liturata ira^A.) (15 e). Creamy white, but thorax and wings leopardina. 

 so densely covered with large black spots that the ground-colour is entirely replaced with the exception 

 of a few light veins and a few longitudinal and transverse stripes. Abdomen very bright purple red, 

 with a row of black dots. The black spots vary somewhat in arrangement and distribution. Kashmir; 

 also in the Indian Himalayas. 



S. multiguttata ir«?A-. (= spilosomoides TFaZfc., pardalina ITcJA-.) (15 f). Forewing white, liindwing yellow, jind/if/ji/tota. 

 both densel}' covered witli numerous rows of blackish spots, onl}- the basal area of the hindwing in the ^ 

 usually free. Thorax white, also dotted, abdomen yellow, with transverse spots above. 



S. imparilis Butl. (15 f). ^ black-brown, collar and abdomen orange. Through the forewing two imparilis. 

 angulate rows of black dots, one through the centre, the other before the margin. The hindwing also 

 bears a submarginal, fairly straight, row of dots. The $ is quite different, creamy white with two angulate 

 rows of dots, converging somewhat towards the inner margin, and a few further dots before the outer 

 margin; hindwing entirely or almost without spots. Exceptionally the row of dots on the hindwing may 

 also be absent in the (J. Throughout Japan, not rare at Tokio. I obtained a specimen from the larva in August. 



S. infernalis Butl. (15 f). Butler has erected for this species the genus Thanatarctia, to which, infcrnalis. 

 if it were considered valid, the preceding species would also belong. ^ uniformly black-brown, without 

 markings, with carmine collar and abdomen. $ pale ochreous, forewing beyond the centre with a broad 

 dark transverse band, interrupted by the hght veins and narrowed at the submedian fold; a pale spot 

 behind the apex of the cell. Hindwing with brown discal spot, a curved line beyond the centre and a 

 row of small spots before the margin; in exceptional cases the hindwing may be entirely without spots. 

 As yet only known from Japan. 



51. Genus: Hpilosonia Steph. 



The species of this genus are without exception white in both sexes; in contradistinction to Spil- 

 arctin, which is confined to the Old World, Spilosonia is also distributed over America, in the North of 

 which continent they are among the commonest moths. On the whole they are more stoutly built than 

 Spilarctia, the forewing broader and not so pointed, the hindwing larger, al)domen short, scarcely reaching 

 the anal angle. Larva short, clothed with dark hairs, and bearing a brightly coloured dorsal line. They 

 have two broods, occurring in June and the autumn, and hibernate in the pupal stage. The moth in 

 May, June and again at the end of July and in August, they are much attracted by light, and in daytime 

 rest close to the ground on boards, tree-trunks and stones. They fly from soon after dark to 10 o'clok at night. 



S. menthastri Esp. (= enninea Marsh., lepus Betz., mendica Eossi, lubricipeda Hamps.) (15 f). Milky menthastn. 

 white, al)domen orange with black dorsal dots. Forewing more or loss sprinkled with sharplj* defined black 

 dots, of which there are always some at the costa and others arranged in rows in the disc. Hindwing with 

 discal dots and often with anal ones and others. Antennae black. In specimens from Northern Scotland 

 the forewing is sandy yellow: ab. ochrea (ab. 5 in Hampson), also found elsewhere as an exception among ochrca. 

 true menthastri (15 g). The forewing may Ije darkened to brown; this is the case in ab. brunnea Ober/A. hrunnea. 

 In ab. \uxir\\ Godt. the forewing is suffused with rose-red distally and brownish proximally. In ab. walker! '"^^"f: 

 Curt, the dots merge together to form radial streaks. Throughout Europe with the exception of the South, 

 and in Central and North Asia to Amurland, China and Japan; here it usually occurs in the form sangaica Walk., snngaica. 

 which is only distinguished from true menthastri ])y the sparse dots, especially in the outer area of the 

 forewing. Specimens similar to sangaica occur aberratively also in Europe, bearing the name paMci2J««ctoFMc/(.9, 

 and in contradistinction to it there is the very strongly dotted krieghoffi Pabst. A still further reduction 

 of the dots leads to ab. unipuncta Strand, in which there is only one dot on the hindwing. — punctariutn jmnclariicm. 

 Cr. {= loseiventer SnelL, doerriesi Oberth.) (15 g) is distinguished from menthastri by the carmine abdomen 

 with sharp transverse spots, and by the wings being rather more spotted, being quite different from 

 sangaica, with which its shares it native country. East Asia. It is proba])ly because menthastri occurs 

 in China as sangaica that many authors regard punctarium as a separata species. — Egg light yellow. Larva 

 lilack-brown. witii deep dark brown hair and orange-yellow dorsal stripe. On low-growing plants, from 



