SINGULAR COLOURING. 



703 



not in the least matter, for the actual insects exhibit just such 

 eccentricity of colouring, and it is absolutely impossible to say 

 definitely what the ground colour really is. Some specimens 

 are almost entirely sooty brown, others are mostly grey, like 

 lichens ; in others the yellow predominates, while in some the 

 prevailing characteristic is a series of black blotches and spots. 

 It is equally variable in size, and in this insect sex has 

 nothing to do with the variation, some of the smallest specimens 

 the British Museum being females. This specimen is a 



m 



native of Northern India. 



The delicate-looking insect which is here represented is a 

 native of Sarawak, and belongs to the small family called 

 Micronidse. 



The colour is a peculiarly soft, creamy white, with a kind of 

 sparkle upon it here 



and there as if 

 dered glass had 

 thinly sprinkled 

 the 



pow- 

 been 



wings. 



over 

 On the 

 upper wings are six 

 transverse .stripes of the 

 palest brown, four being 

 long stripes and the 

 other two short. On 

 the lower wings are 

 two stripes and a few 

 pencillings of the same 

 hue. The only positive 

 colouring in the insect 

 is found in the little black spots along the edge of the upper 

 wings, and the short streaks on the edge of the lower wings. 



The specific name astheniata signifies " enfeebled," and refers 

 to the paleness of the colours. Another species, Micronia j'us- 

 tasia, of New Guinea, is almost exactly like this insect, except 

 that it has three brown bands on each wing. There are twenty- 

 nine species in the British Museum. 



Fig. i'S'i. — Micronia astheniata. 

 (White and pale brown.) 



The genus Panagra is a very large one, and is mostly African 

 or Australian, from which latter country the present species 



