FLETCHER— LEPIDOPTEBA. 267 



II. Systematic List. 

 Family ArctiadaB. 



1. Utetheisa lactea. Bull. 



Deiopeia lactea, Butl., Zool. Collns. of H.M.S. ' Alert,' p. 577 (1881). 



Utetheisa lactea, Hampson, Cat. Phal. iii. p. 483, t. 50. f. 6 (1901) ; Harapson, A. M. N. H. (8) 

 i. p. 481 (1908). 

 Parquhar I. — ^Twenty-seven specimens. Of these, fifteen agree with the type in the 

 " entire absence of the usual scarlet markings" &c., but the remaining twelve show 

 more or less conspicuously distinct signs of a red pattern on the fore wing. In its 

 most pronounced type (specimen no. 6066) this takes tlie form of a longitudinal 

 subcostal bar extending from about ^ to a little beyond \, a rather broader submedian 

 longitudinal stripe from about J to just beyond the origin of vein 2, and a longitudinal 

 interrupted stripe below and parallel to the second stripe and bounding the anterior 

 edge of vein 1 ; all these three stripes are of vermilion scales intermixed externally 

 with orange scales. Besides these stripes, there are pale orange spots, of which the 

 best defined are three subbasal, two costal, one subapical, one at lower angle of cell, 

 and one on anterior margin of vein 1 at about |. 



This moth was fairly common in Earquhar Island around bushes of Tournefortia 

 argentea, on which the larvge were found feeding. 



The following is a description of the larva made on 7 October, 1905, from living 

 Parquhar examples : — 



Colour a creamy white with a slight tinge of yellow, particularly in intersegmental 

 rings. Head black, with a creamy A mark. A pale yellow dorsal stripe. Tubercles i 

 and iii faintly ringed with pale yellow. Legs black. Prolegs whitish ; hooks on inner 

 side of prolegs only, few in number (about 10), on a flange, reddish in colour ; prolegs 

 on third to sixth and tenth abdominal segments. 



AU tubercles are glossy black, being raised almost like warts above the smooth and 

 glossy skin. Anterior (i) and posterior (ii) trapezoidals each bear a single black hair. 

 The supraspiracular tubercle (iii) bears a single white hair. A postspiracular tubercle 

 (iv) bears a white hair. A small black hairless prespiracular dot below (iii). Two black 

 tubercles below the flange, the foremost bearing one white hair, the hindmost having 

 two. A black spot at base of leg and prolog. (Plate 17. fig. 16.) 



The larva seems to feed indifferently on the upper and under side of Tournefortia 

 leaves, consuming halfway through the leaf, and leaving an unsightly brown patch 

 usually starting from the edge and of quite irregular shape. 



S. Providence.— Common on 3 October, 1905, on the Tournefortia bushes, and larvje 

 also found. 



Of twelve specimens only five have the red markings developed at aU, the range of 

 this red-spotted variation being quite parallel to that in Farquhar examples. In the 

 lactea form, however, there seems to be a greater development of the black spots in 

 these specimens as compared with Farquhar examples, these spots forming a pattern 



