112 DASYCHIRA. By Dr. E. Strand. 



before hibernation, very abundantly at many places, usually on sandy soil, and feeds on low-growing 

 plants, especially on Leguminosae, e. g. Lathyrus, Sarothamnus, Vicia, Trifoliuni, but also attacks trees, 

 which it is said to have damaged. After hibernation it pupates in April, without having taken much 

 food. They then are much rarer than in the autumn, and are very difficult to rear, often not a single 

 moth being obtained from large quantities of larvae. According to a wide-spread opinion the larva needs 

 large tracts of sand in order to find a suitable spot for pupation and, if it cannot find one, runs about 

 without pupating until it dies. Even in Nature a great many larvae appear to die before pupating. Pupa 

 reddish l)rown, with yellowish hair (especially dorsally), with darker markings, in a grey-brown ovate 

 cocoon on t)r in the sand. The moth in May and June, usually not common, even rare in localities where 

 the larvae are found in huge (luantities in October, e. g. at Erfurt, Frankfurt a. M., Regensburg, etc.; 

 only in some years commoner. 



albodentata. D. albodentata i?r<!)». Thorax and forewing ashy grey, almost unicolourous, with the exception of a 



white flexuose snlilimbal line, which does not or scarcely reach the costal margin. A dark transverse band 

 bounding the basal area distally, projects as a sharp tooth in the centre, and a dark discocellular spot is 

 indicated; at the costal margin two indistinct oblique transverse grey spots. Upperside of hindwing and 

 underside of both wings lighter grey, beneath with indication of a darker discocellular spot. Fringes of the 

 olija- hindwing spotted with white. From the extreme south of the Ussuri district. ■ — olga Oberth. (19 g) is 

 said to be a form of this species, with both wings in the (J almost entirely black, bearing a greyish white, 

 ratVier large, triangular or almost trapeziform costal spot. The $ has grej'ish brown wings with dark dots, 

 a white submarginal line similar to that of the name-typical form; the inner edge of the marginal area 

 is formed by a black acutely dentate transverse line and a black transverse line also runs across the centre 

 of the wings forming a sharp point directed basad in the centre. The basal two-thirds of the costal area 

 of the forewing whitish, bounded posteriorly in the basal half by a black longitudinal streak. A dis- 

 cocellular spot is indicated. South-East Siberia. — The larva of olga feeds on maple. The moth appears 

 in the autumn. 



fascelina. D. fascelina L. (19 f). Forewing ash-grey, lighter at the costal margin, with black and yellow 



irrorations, the median area bounded on the inner side by a regularly curved dark transverse line and on 

 the outer side by a similar one twice or three times broken; both lines being most distinct at the costal 

 margin. Hindwing grey or whitish. — Larva blackish grey with yellowish hair, the dorsal bristles yelloM" 

 laterally. Pupa black-brown in a blackish cocoon. Distributed from Arctic Norway to Bilbao and Piemont 

 and from England and the Atlantic coasts to the Altai and I\Iongolia. — While the normal size varies 

 from 40 mm. (^J) and 50 mm. ($), a form figured but not named by Herri ch-Schaffer for 

 proletaria. which I propose the name ab. proletaria Strand nom. nov., does not attain more than 29 mm. in the (J; 

 it is also distinguished by the ground-colour of both wings being olive-grey, with the two transverse lines 

 rather indistinct and not reaching the hindmargin, while the discocellular spot is more conspicuous than 

 medicaginis. in true fascelina. — medicagitlis Hbn. is darker in the $. Forewing black-grey, the light costal area only 

 nidicated at the most, but the sharply defined discocellular spot situated in a white patch from which 

 extend long acute prolongations directed marginad; the outer transverse band is broad and distinct, the 

 inner one diffuse; both dusted with rusty yellow. Hindwing dark grey, with a submarginal row of dark 

 lands, smears. ■ — laricis Schille is an almost uniformly ash-grey form with scarcely any black or white irroration, 

 with shortened and obsolescent transverse stripes, living on larches, while the name-typical form lives on 



obscura. leaf-bearing trees. — The Arctic obscura Zeit. is much darker, with the forewing uniformly black-grey 



without any markings except the usually indistinct outer transverse line. The larva of this form, occur- 



ing in the Arctic region as a typical local variety, but also mentioned from Siberia and Amurland, lives 



unicolor. on Salix. — In ab. unicolor Scliultz (from the Vallais) the forewing is said to be light grey, quite unicolour- 



nivalis. ous without any markings. — nivalis Stgr., which the author suspected to be a "species darwiniana" of 

 the preceding and which is perhaps a distinct species, is larger {^ 4*2 — 46 mm.) and much lighter; hind- 

 wing sometimes almost quite white, only in the $ somewhat variegated with grey, and dusted with blackish 

 below costally; the light ash-grey forewing bears two obsolescent transverse bands suffused with orange. 

 Antenna of \^ with longer pectinations and less pointed at the apex than in fascelina. Central Asia, in the 



obscura. higher mountains (Alai, Transalai, Hazret-Sultan Mts., near Samarkand, Issyk-kul). — obscura Stgr. are 

 specimens of nivalis from the eastern Tian-shan and the Uliassutai in which the whitish grey forewing is so 

 densely dusted with blackish that the ground-colour is almost superseded; the transverse bands almost 



angclus. obsolete. Hindwing grey with darker median dot and obsolescent submarginal band. — angelus Tschet- 

 verikow also belongs to the group of D. fascelina nivalis, but is distinguished from the other forms Ijy the 

 much clearer chalky white colour of the forewing, which bears a strongly developed black discoidal spot, 

 and by the hindwing being dirty wliite with a dark median spot and dark outer band. Occurs in the 

 southern foothills of the Sajan Mts., Northern Mongoha. cj 37 mm. — Egg of fascelina whitish, covered 

 with wool; larva blackish grey, the tufts at the sides of the thorax and on the end-segment long and black; 

 the rest of the body covered with grey hair, the dorsal tufts whitish black above. When long exposed, 



