BOMBYCID^. 43 



blackish stripe down the middle of the back, and sometimes 

 with another along the margin of each shoulder-flap. Abdomen 

 long, moderately robust in the male, very large and stout in 

 the female ; reddish-brown, clouded with dark chocolate ; 

 densely covered with rather long scales, which are longer in 

 a lateral ridge ; anal segment with a rather large, similar tuft 

 in the male, and a small conical one in the female. Fore 

 wings of a long ovate shape, with a very long curved costa ; 

 apex bluntly angulated ; hind margin strongly curved and 

 deeply scalloped between the nervures, the last excavation 

 running far into the dorsal margin, which is otherwise 

 extremely short, and rather rounded ; deep rich chocolate- 

 brown, dusted with reddish-brown, slightly clouded with 

 blackish toward the costa, and with rusty-red along the 

 dorsal margin ; first line blackish, rather short, deeply 

 elbowed and repeatedly angulated ; second line slender, 

 blackish, formed into a complete series of crescents between 

 nervures, extending from the middle of the dorsal margin, in 

 a direction parallel with the hind margin, to near the costa, 

 where it makes a short elbow back before curving to the 

 costal margin ; beyond this line is a regular row of slender 

 purplish -black crescented shades, nearly parallel ; outside 

 which the space before the hind margin is tinged with a 

 more purplish-chocolate ; at the end of the discal cell, which 

 is short, is a black spot, streak, or lunule ; nervures rust-red, 

 not conspicuous ; cilia reddish-brown. Hind wings rather 

 short but with the portion from the base along the anterior 

 margin strongly arched so as to protrude in front of the 

 fore wings when they are closed, and so form a considerable 

 flap or lappet, from which the moth receives its common 

 English name ; hind margin rounded and deeply scalloped 

 between the nervures ; purplish-chocolate, anterior margin 

 more rust-red ; base and middle often clouded with dark 

 brown or blackish ; across the middle are two ill-defined 

 blackish stripes, more distinct in the female ; the space 

 between them often clouded with blackish so as to form a 



