92 EHYPARIA. By Dr. A. Seitz. 



localities, throughout Europe with the exception of the Polar region, and in Anterior and Central Asia 

 to the Altai. 



sordida. D. sordida Hbn. (17 c). ^ very hke that of mendica, but with stronger dots, $ also dull greyish 



brown. The forewing is much more densely spotted in both sexes, and the dots are already arranged in 



rarbonis. curved, often irregular, transverse lines. In ab. carbonis Frr. (= sordida ? Hbii., semicana Esp.) (17 c) 

 the black dots are reduced and the insect therefore closely resembles the ^ of mendica, but can always be 

 distinguished from it by the shape of the wings and by a row of dots at the apex of the cell forming 

 trifasciata. a transverse spot. On the other hand, in ab. trifasciata Spul. (17 d) the dots are so distinct and so 

 confluent that they unite to dense curved rows forming real narrow transverse bands. As has already 

 been mentioned under mendica, sordida has been crossed with the form rustica and vierili Car. has thus 

 been obtained; but the species has also been paired with the following, D. luctuosa, and true hybrids have 

 seileri. resulted, viz. the f. hybr. seileri Car. — Larva light blue-green with dark warts and light dorsal line. 

 Hairs dark brown; lateral line yellow; head black. It feeds on low-growing plants and pupates in the 

 autumn; the pupa is black-brown and hibernates. Moth in June (I caught a worn specimen near Genoa 

 already in the middle of June); in the plains sometimes a second brood in the late summer. It likes to 

 settle on the underside of the leaves of nettles or brambles. The area of distribution is very limited; 

 it only reaches from the Pyrenees to the Alps and the neighbouring countries of these mountains. In 

 the Appenines I found the insect fairly abundant. The ^ is on the wing in daytime and has a wild flight. 



luctuosa. D. luctuosa Hb7i.G. (= lugubris H. Schdff.) (17 d). This species represents the preceding in East 



Europe. Also smoke-grey, but slightly larger, wings broader, the ground-colour with a reddish tinge, 

 which is especially visible at the distal margin. The rows of dots, which may also be partially united tu 

 form bands, are very distinct, especially at the costa of the forewing, but may also be reduced. However, 

 the marginal dots are nearly always distinct, and the forewing on the whole is more densely scaled. The 

 hybrid form, f. hybr. seileri, has already been mentioned under sordida. In the Eastern Alps, Austria, 

 Hungary and the Balkan Peninsula to Greece. — Larva black-brown with dark foxy red hairs. In Austria 

 in June and July, in Greece probably in two broods. The moth in the early spring and presumably in 

 the summer. Locally not rare. 



turensis. D. tufcnsis Erscli. (17 d). Dirty grey-brown with long porrect black palpi. Forewing with strong 



black dots at the base, a diseocellular spot composed of several black dots and behind it a curved trans- 

 verse hne sometimes slightly interrupted. Hindwing little lighter, with a dark discal spot. In Central 

 "'"'^X'rt" ^^^^' *^sp9cially Turkestan, in the Tian-shan and the Kuldsha district. — The form maracandica Stgr. i. 1. 

 (17 d), also from Turkestan, is considerably larger, often rather lighter, and the black transverse Hnes are 

 reduced into often incomplete rows of dots. 



6. Subfamily: Arctiinae. 



The true Tigermoths are moderately small to large insects, often very brightly coloured and with the 

 wings of an usually normal shape. The head is moderately large, the frons not very broad, with long dense 

 hair, in wiiich the eyes are concealed. The palpi are mostly covered with short and dense hair; the tongue is 

 often absent or strongly reduced. The legs are strong, as as rule brightly coloured, with short spurs. Thorax 

 stout, woolly, an oil-gland at each side of the neck. Abdomen of the $ usually very stout, often club-shaped 

 towards the apex, sometimes so much so that flight is difficult. Forewing usually triangular, hindwing broadly 

 ovate or rounded, both wings sometimes aborted in the $. — Larvae with very long, often shaggy hair; 

 many of them, like the moths, are very brightly coloured. As a rule they are polyphagous, and feed on nearly 

 all plants favoured by larvae, such as lettuce, dandelion, plantago, etc. Most of them have only one brood. 

 About 200 species are known, which are widely distributed, most of them, however, inhabiting the Palearctic 

 Region and North America, while they are considerably rarer in the Tropics. Great variability in the markings 

 of the wings may be regarded as rather characteristic of the Arctiinae. Although it is conceivable that one is 

 inclined to give names to more or less constantly recurring individual forms in which the marliings are so en- 

 larged or reduced or so confluent that the general fades is much altered, the introduction of names for speci- 

 mens in which single spots are absent or confluent, as occurs in nearly all the Arctiinae in every imaginable 

 combination, is merely a burden on science, which we must avoid here, if only on account of the restricted 

 space at our disposal, the present work being already bulky enough. In larger Icpidopterological works it depends 

 on the personal views of the author how far he will go in accepting the named individual aberrations, and in a 

 comprehensive work like the Macrolepidoptera of the World, the question of space is of decisive importance. 

 However, it is quite out of the question among the Arctiinae to give a name to every single variation in 

 marking, if only on account of the prodigious number of possible modifications, which, e. g. in A. rillira. 

 amount to as many as a thousand, all being certainly in existence, although some may accidentally not yet 

 have been found. P'or that reason we have only more fully dealt with those names w-hich have been accepted 

 in catalogues and collections, while others based on mere anomalies in markings are only cursorily mentioned er 

 entirely left out, being a mere encumbrance. 



60. Genus: Rhypai'ia Hbn. 



These tigers are medium-sized moths, strongly built, with large head, tufted frons, very broad 

 thorax clothed with long shaggy hair, and with the abdomen also shaggy, and rather slender in the (J; 



