ARCTIIDJE. 265 



yellower colour — called macromera — but evidently belonging 

 to the present species. From North America a smaller 

 variety is obtained, having the ground colour of all the 

 wings white. 



Genus 7. ARCTIA. 



Antennse of the male pectinated with solid teeth, which 

 are fringed with fine bristles, or sometimes with short tooth- 

 like branches. Thorax broad and heavily clothed with 

 scales ; abdomen robust ; fore wings ample, stout and 

 strong ; hind wings very broad and rounded ; of gay colours. 



1. A. caja, L. — Expanse 2|- to 3 inches. Fore wings 

 creamy white with large irregular dark brown blotches ; 

 hind wings brilliant crimson with blue-black spots. 



Antennae of the male shortly pectinated, shaft stout, 

 usually white, occasionally dark brown, pectinations brown ; 

 of the female stout, slightly serrated, white. Head and 

 thorax covered with very long, loose, partially erect, dark 

 brown scales like a rich fur, except that the collar is edged 

 behind with dark crimson (close to this are two small valves 

 from which, when annoyed, a yellowish liquid is exuded). 

 Abdomen rich scarlet, with a row of broad blue-black bars 

 down the back. Fore wings stout and very ample, with 

 all the margins gently rounded, the apex hardly angulated, 

 and the anal angle rounded off; deep dark chocolate brown 

 irregularly broken up by creamy white stripes and blotches — 

 an oblique transverse band near the base, having branches 

 running from it into the base ; two sharply defined tri- 

 angular, or streamer-like, blotches on the costal margin ; 

 a second broad transverse band from the costa beyond the 

 middle to the centre of the dorsal margin ; and a third from 

 the costa near the apex, crossing, with wide angulations 

 to the anal angle and nearly always uniting in the middle 

 with the second band, so that a roughly formed cross 

 composed of these two bands, in the hinder area, is the most 



