94 DIACRISIA. By Dr. A. Seitz. 



Hungary and said to occur also in Northern France. Spulek separates the East Asiatic form (flavida) 

 from the European specimens. — Larva ivory--\vhite, with blackish grey longitudinal bands, narrowly edged 

 with white: there are tufts of dirty greyish yellow hairs on yellowish warts. Venter blackish grey, prolegs 

 reddish Iirown (Horvath). On low plants growing in damp spots, such as Caltha and Euphorbia palus- 

 tris, but may also be reanul on dandelion. Until ^la}- at wet ditches and in boggy localities. The moth 

 in July and August. 



amurensis. R, amurensis Brem. (14 i). Wings much broader than in the preceding, but without the reddish 



brown streak on the median. Fore wing bright yellow, in the (^ with a few small black spots, especially 

 at the costa and at the middle of the inner margin. $ with intricate reddish brown markings on the forewing; 

 hindwing and abdomen in both sexes similar to those of the preceding species. Widely distributed in 

 East Asia; in Amurland, North and West China to Sze-chuen, in the Yang-tse Valley, in Corea and 

 the whole North of Japan; locally not rare. 



nebulosa. R. nebulosa Bull. (= simplicior Butl.) (14 i). Larger than the preceding; forewing dull orange- 



yellow, with more or less numerous black spots, forewing of (J suffused with blackish grey from the 

 median vein to the inner margin with the exception of the marginal area. Hindwing Ijright red with 

 black spots. Especially distinguished from the preceding species by the dark suffusion of the forewing 

 of the c^, by the dark chequered fringes of the forewing and the altogether darker colour of this wing. 

 In Amurland near Vladivostock, at the Ussuri and Suifun, in North and Central Japan, in July, local. 



subvaria. S. subvaria Walk. (14 k). Forewing lemon-yellow, darker in the basal area, with a dot in the cell 



near the base and a group of small black and brown spots at the apex of the cell. Hindwing deep 

 orange-red, a few black spots on the disc and before the outer margin. The $ has a few additional 

 reddish yellow spots below the cell, and transversely through the forewing angulate rows of reddish dots. 

 In China, in the North as well as in the South (Hongkong) and from the coast up the Yang-tse Valley 

 to Central China. 



62. Genus : I>iaerisia Hhi. 



This genus of Hubner's has been reintroduced when it was found that its genotye sannio was 

 not closely related to the species Parasemid pJantaginis generally placed with it in one genus Nemeophila. 

 In his later classification of the Arctiids, however, Hampson considers sannio to be generically allied 

 to the species of the preceding genera, and unites Bhyparia, Spilosoma, Spilarctia, etc., in one enormously 

 large genus containing more than 150 forms. As it was necessary, however, for the sake of lucidity to 

 split up this unwieldy genus into sections, we have not followed Hampson, but adopted for the various 

 sections the generic, names proposed by former authors. The great sexual dimorphism in sannio appears 

 to us to render it impossible to place sannio in the same genus as other less dimorphic species, such as 

 Spilosoma. A further characteristic of Diacrisia s. str. is the more slender build of the (J. It is separated 

 from Parasemia and others by the areole being absent. — Head small; frons narrow, but clothed with 

 dense woolly hair; palpi moderately long; tongue absent. Thorax small, round; abdomen in the ^ very 

 long and slender, in the $ stout, oval. Legs very much longer than in the preceding. Wings of the o 

 large, triangular, in the $ considerably shorter; apex rather pointed. Larva with tufts of hair, the hairs 

 being longer posteriorly than anteriorly. The moths have two broods, which differ one from the other. 

 They occur in the plains as well as in the higher mountains, almost as far as the limit of vegetation. 

 They are confined to the Palearctic region, but are there distributed over nearly every countrj'. 



.tavnio. D. sannio L. (= vulpinaria L., russula L.) (14 k). Forewing of the ^ lemon-yellow, hindwing 



ivory yellow, both wings with a greyish red median spot and pink margin. In the $ the body and wings 



are suffused with brownish red. Throughout Europe with the exception of the Polar region, and in Ice- 



pallida. land. — In pallida Stgr., which occurs constantly in Central Asia and aberratively also in Europe, the 



Irene, black colour is reduced. — In irene Butl. (= immarginata Niepelt), which occurs in Japan and locally also 



elsewhere in the Palearctic region, and is regarded by Matsumura as a separate species, the black 



colour is aliscnt on the hindwing of the (^ and the median spot on the forewing is generally reduced. 



uniformis. — In uniformis Higr. (14 k), from Syr-Darja, the last trace of black and pink has disappeared, so that 



extreme specimens of this form are quite uniformly pale yellow on both sides of the wings and body. — 



In specimens from Ferghana, the Issyk-kul and the neighbouring countries further east in Central Asia, 



the red inner margin of the forewing is entirely absent, the black on the hindwing being however present. 



viorliia. This is the form mortua Stgr. — Further eastward, at the Amur, a form occurs with very sharp black 



amuri. markings, and with the ground-colour of the hindwing strongly tinged with reddish, amuri Stgr. ■ — In a 



mountain-form from above Zermatt in the Vallais ') I found the black colour increased in several of the 



') At Zermatt flies the form of the plains according to a communication i. litt. by Herr Puxgelek. 



