6 THE FLORIDA FERN CATERPILLAR. 



The following description is copied from Sir George F. Ilam- 

 son's Catalogue of the Noctuida' :^ 



$. Head and thorax greyish tinged witli rufous and mixed with a few black 

 scales; palpi thickly irrorated with black; frons whitish with black bar above; 

 antennte with the extremity of basal joint, the basal part of shaft above and 

 below, and the shaft above beyond the sinus black ; tegulje mostly black, edged 

 with grey, w-ith angled grey line near base and grey line at middle; fore and 

 mid tarsi black at extremities; abdomen ochreous tinged with fuscous, the 

 basal crests rufous, the crest on Brd segment black. Forewing ochreous grey- 

 ish tinged with rufous, the veins defined by slight blackish streaks; subbasal 

 line represente<l by double black striie filled in with whitish from costa and 



'III W -r 



Fk!. L- 



-l'"lorida fern caterpillar (JJriopiis paridiiisis \ : Moth above; striped larva at left; 

 (lark larva at rlfrlit. Knl;u-;.'ed. lOrijrinal.) 



cell and with double black stri;e before it from cell : antemedial line double, 

 filled in with whitish, angled outwards below costa, acutely angled outwards 

 on base of vein 2. then excurved, a whitish striga before it from submedian 

 fold to vein 1 ; orbiculiir with brown centre and whitish annulus. very narrow 

 and slightly angled outwards at median nervure: reniform whitish with white 

 bar on inner edge followed by a brown line, oblique, its lower extremity pro- 

 duced to a hook, ii triangular brown iiatch before it extending to costa ; an 

 oblique brown line fi'om beyond lower edge of cell to vein 1, then bent outwards 

 to inner margin; postmedial line double, brown, angled inwards below costa. 



1 Cat. Noct. Brit. Mus., vol. 7. r'P- 54.S-.-,4!», London, luns. 



