72 CATOCALA FLEBILIS. 



Secondaries black, with white friuge. 



Under surface; primaries blacii ; a small white basal patch, a white spot or space in cell, and a very 

 narrow, half obsolete, white sub-marginal band. 



Secondaries white; a broad black marginal and narrower mesial band, the white space between these two 

 is very narrow. 



Found in same localities as C. Desperata, but by no means as common. 



FIG. 4 is a variety, occasionally occurrinjj, in which the broad central longitudinal dash is broken in the 

 middle at tiie reniform and sub-reniform. 



For the original of this figure (4) I am indebted to friend Angus, of West Farms, N. Y., who captured 

 near that village, at various times, examples of this variety, and to whose goodness I have been again and 

 again indebted for valuable additions to my cabinet, as well as many other acts of kindness. 



CATOCALA AHOLIBAH. Nov. Sp. 



(PLATE TX, FIG. 5, 9.) 



Expands 3 inches. 



Hea<l and thorax, above, dark brown, with scattered white or grey scales ; abdomen brown. Beneath 

 light brownish grey. 



Upper surface ; primaries dark brown frosted and intermixed with white and grey ; a white s])ace adjoin- 

 ing the reniform inwardly; reniform indistinct; sub-reniform very small, white, surrounded with l)lack, and 

 entirely disconnected with tiie transverse posterior line. 



Secondaries crimson, with brownish hair at the base ; median band rather narrow and regular, and con- 

 tinued to within a short distance of the abdominal margin, where it turns upwards and is lost in the brownish 

 hair that clothes that part. 



Under surface; primaries crossed by three black bands, none of which join or merge with each other; 

 the spaces between tiie ba.se and sub-basal band, and between the latter and the median band, are orange col- 

 oured inclining a little to crimson at the interior margin ; the space between the median an 1 marginal hands 

 is white; fringe white, with black at terminations of the veins. 



Secondaries; inner two-thirds crimson, a little paler than on upper side, rest white; marginal band tinged 

 with grey at and near the cosia ; median band terminates about one line from abdominal margin; slight 

 indications of a discal crescent connecting with the median band ; fringe white. 



Habitat. C'alilbrnia. 



The above description and acconjpanying figure were taken from the single 5 example contain(;d in the 

 collection of Mr. James Behrens, of San Francisco, to who.=e practical and extended labors in Entomology we 

 are indebted for our knowledge of many of the l-'atafic species, and who, in order to enable me to present 

 the species, had the almost unprecedented generosity to rob his (rtvn fine cabinet of the only example it con- 

 tained of this insect. He say.s, in reft'rence to it, that " it is a frequenter of the deepest, darkest gulches and 

 glens of the higher mountains of California," and further, that it llics in July and August, and was the wildest 

 animal he ever saw. 



This species closely resembles C. Sponsa* and its ally, C. Dilectaf ; the primaries, on ii[)per suriiice, have 

 a striking similarity, especially to Sponsa, and the ground colour of secondaries is the same, but there the 

 resemblance ceases; the black bands of secondaries are different, and in the under surfice of primaries of the . 

 two European sjH'cics the black ban'dsare broader, and the sub-basal and median at the inner half of the wing are 

 connected, and the median antl marginal are almost confluent at and towards the interior margin, ami the narrow 

 spaces between all these bands are entirely white. In the .secondaries the crimson extends much nearer to tiie costa, 

 and tliere is a large black di.scal lunc or spot. I have been thus particular in my descriptive remarks of the 

 above analogous Euro|)ean species, inasmuch as, no matter liow careful a drawing be made, ihe student does 

 not ofcour.se feel that certainty whilst comparing his examjile with it, and is often apt to think, if tlie differ- 

 ences are not very strongly marked ones, that they nuiy be the result of the artists not being exhaustively 

 accurate, and is, consequently, sometimes thereby led to erroneous conclusions. But the shape of the black 

 bands on upper surface of secondaries, and the spaces i)etween the black bands on under surface of primaries 



*Linnc. Syst. Nat., 841, (1767). 



t flubner, Sam. Eur. Sehmett., 388, (1793-1827). 



