56 INSECTA TRANSVAALIENSIA. 



5. Nudaurelia cytherea. (Tab. V., fig. 9.) 



Bombyx cytherea, Fabricius, Syst. Entomol. p. 557, n. 5 (1775) ; Roem. Gen. Ins. tab. xxi. fig. 1 (1781). 



Bomhyx Hesperus minor, Sulz. Gesch. Ins. tab. xxi. fig. 1 (1776). 



AttacHs capensis, Stoll, Pap. Exot. iv. tab. 302 A, tab. 325 G (1781). 



Antheraa cytherea, Kirby, Syn. Cat. Lepid. Heteroc. p. 757 (1892); Dist. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (6), vol. xix. 



pp. 390 and 392 (1897). 

 Nudaurelia cytherea, Sonth. Ess. Classif. Lepid. product, de Soie (3" fascic), p. 14, pi. v. figs. 1 and 2 (1901). 



Hab. — Transvaal; Pretoria (Distant), Johannesburg (Cregoe), Lydenburg District (Krantz ; Pret. 

 Mus.). — Found all over Southern Africa, including the neighbourhood of Cape Town. I have specimens 

 from Plettenberg Bay ; Knysna. 



A most variable species, both in colour and size. The specimen here figured is a small 

 male taken at Johannesburg. It varies in the ground colour from very pale ochraceous to 

 testaceous in some specimens, and even dark castaneous in others. The fasciae crossing the 

 anterior wings are also inconstant in their distance from one another, as is also the inner 

 fascia in the extent to which it is angularly waved. In the posterior wing the ocellated spot 

 sometimes touches, or almost touches, the transverse submarginal fascia; while in other 

 specimens it is distinctly removed from it. I have myself taken different varieties in the 

 same month at Pretoria. 



M. Arnold Pictet has recently published the principal results of his experiments in pro- 

 ducing a varietal form of some imagines by a radical change of food provided for the larvae.* 

 He has experimented with Bombyx quercus as well as with other species, and the whole 

 proceeding is highly suggestive, and is well worth following with these Transvaal Saturniids. 



.6. Nudaurelia wahlbergi. (Tab. V., fig. 2.) 



Saturida uahlberyii, Boisduval, in Delegorgue, Voy. Afr. Austr. ii. p. 600 (18-17) ; Herr-Schaff. Aussereurop. 



Schmett. i. fig. 95 (1854). 

 Antheraa loahlbergii, Wallengr. Ofv. Vet.-Akad. Forh. xxxii. (1) p. 97 (1876). 

 Nudaurelia wahlbergi, Eothsch. Novitates Zool. vol. ii. p. 45 (1895). 

 Nudaurelia Dione tvalberyi, Sonth. Ess. Classif. Lepid. product, de Soie (3° fascic), p. 19, pi. vi. figs. 4 and 5 



(1901). 

 Larva and Pupa. — Nudaurelia wahlbergi, Fawcett, Trans. Zool. Soc. Lond. vol. xv. p. 303, pi. xlvii. figs. 4, 5 



(1901). 



The larva has the "ground colour deep velvety black, each somite bearing four branched ferruginous 

 sjnnes with reddish bases, two subdorsally and two laterally, from 2nd to 12th somite inclusive, the spines on 

 the 2nd somite having black bases. Between the subdorsal and the lateral row of spines are placed a collection 

 of small yelloio spots on each somite; the red bases of the subdorsal and lateral spines being joined on 10th and 

 11th somites. Spiracles white,- a subspiracular row of small yellowish tubercles bearing a feiv whitish hairs, 

 one on eacli somite. Head and legs concolorous witli body " (Fawcett). 



Hab. — Transvaal; Shilouvane in Zoutpansberg (Junod, Pret. Mus. and Coll. Dist.). — Common in 

 Natal, and widely distributed in South-east and Equatorial Africa. 



Larva feeds at Durban on castor-oil plant (A. Ross, in litt.). Feeds on English oak, but 

 has also been taken in large numbers on peach trees in gardens at Maritzburg ; both these 

 trees being imported species in Natal (Fawcett). 



■■■ Cf. 'Revue Scientifique,' ser. 4, tome 18, p. 793 (1902). 



