OF SHAPE. 175 



ance which objects possess when covered with a slight 

 coat of hoar frost ; it may be said to approximate to a 

 blue grey. 



Whites : albous or albus is a pure white : whitish or 

 albidus is a dirty or impure white : grey or canus, the 

 colour of grey hair, and more properly confined to descrip- 

 tions of hair : cinereous or cinereus, the blue grey colour 

 of ashes : cretaceous or cretaceus, the white of chalk, or 

 white with a slight tint of yellow ochre : niveous or niveus 

 is a brilliant snowy white. 



Besides these there are various metallic colours common 

 in insects, as silvery or argenteus, brassy or aheneus, like- 

 wise written ceneus, and then used to imply a bright gold 

 green ; the Latin word smaragdinus implies a still more 

 intense degree of the same colour : coppery or cupreus, 

 and steel blue or chalybeus. 



The degree of intensity in a colour is usually implied 

 by the addition of an adjective ; thus saturatus implies 

 that a colour is very deep and full ; dilutus implies that it 

 is pale : again, laetus very bright, and obsoletus very dull 

 or indistinct, are contrasted in the same manner, and may, 

 by altering the termination, be used adverbially ; thus Icete 

 cupreus, obsolete glaucus : saturatus and dilutus do not 

 allow this change. 



Of Distribution of Colour. A diversity of colour occurs 

 very frequently in the same insect, and the shape or limit 

 of a colour is expressed by a descriptive word ; as a spot 

 or macula signifying a roundish or angular mark, not elon- 

 gated in any direction : a stripe or plaga is the term used 

 when the spot is more elongate : a fillet or vitta is a longi- 

 tudinal stripe, and a band or fascia is a transverse one. 



Shape. The terms used to express shape should be 

 precisely in accordance with those employed by the Latin 

 authors : their copious language may readily be applied 



