18 CATOCALA VIDITATA. 



Secondaries liiive marginal biiiul very broad, mesial moderate and strongly angulatc, white 

 space between the two bands, very narrow. 



A southern species altiiough taken in a few rare instances in Pennsylvania. Examples 

 are in the Mus. of tiie Am. Ent. Soe. and my own. The most robust and with the exception 

 of the C'alifornian C. Marmoratii, the largest American Catocjda. With this species has 

 freiiuentiy been <T>nfi>iindod C. Despcrata (!ucn. a smaller and slighter built insect, common 

 throughout the Middh' and Southern States and which i.s figured in Abbot it Smitii, under 

 the name of Plialaeno Vidua. 



CATOCALA LACHRYMOSA. (Uknkk. 



SPEC. GEN. VOL. VII p. 91!. 



^PLATE III, FIG. 3 c?) 



Expands 3 inches. 

 Upper surface, primaries very dark and dusted witii minute pale grey scales, transverse 

 lines black, sub-terminal distinct and sometimes sliaded interiorly with grey; the grey shad- 

 ings of the transverse lines arc broader and brighter between the sub-median vein and interior 

 margin ; whole surface of wings frosted and powdered in sucli a way as to make tiic markings 

 very indistinct. 



Socouflarics bhuk, iVinges white, divided by black at terminations of nervules. 



I'nder surface much like ('. \'iduata. 



Habitat. Pennsylvania. 



1 iiave not seen examples from any other state ; it appeal's to be exceedingly local ; twi» 

 years since a dozen or so were taken in a small piece of woods, four miles from Reading, but 

 in none of the neighboring localities have I ever met with it. It is subject to much variation ; 

 of six examples now bctbre me, none agree in the depth or quantity of the dark color of pri- 

 maries ; the one figured on Plate III has the black, sub-terminal line, margined with grey of 

 unusual brightness, whilst in another there is no accompanying grey at all ; yet another has 

 tile third of the wing along the interior margin deep black, like in C". Tristis, and the most 

 notable var. is one in wliieh the wliole space between the transverse anterior and sub- 

 terminal lines is black, whilst the space from sub-marginal line to exterior margin is remark- 

 ably ligiit and even colored, exactly after the manner of ('. Scintilians; tiiese were all taken 

 the same day in one place. 



I must confess 1 can sec in this species none of the resemblance to C. Epione alluded to 

 bv Mr. Grote," nmre than that they both have black inferiors ; under side of Lachrymosa is 

 white, with usual black bands ; that of Epione is black, with, on primaries, a narrow white 

 sub-terminal band, midway between which and the ba.se is a small white patch commencing on 

 costa and running diagonally to middle of wing; secondaries have the merest trace of a very 

 narrow, almost obsolete white band running from costa a short way in. 



■* Tr:ins. Am. Kill. S.ic, Vol. IV, pp. -J A 1!>. 



