THE MAGPIE MOTHS. 



705 



taining this genus, it is rather startling to come upon our Currant 

 Magpie and Clouded Magpie, looking like old friends in a 

 strange land. 



The present species is a native of Northern China. In com- 

 mon with most insects of this genus, it is much liable to varia- 

 tion, as may be seen by inspecting the four specimens in the 

 British Museum. In one of them the ground colour is entirely 

 orange. In another, both pairs of wings are edged with orange, 

 the centre fading into greyish white ; and in the two others the 

 upper wings are entirely orange and the lower are grey, edged 

 with orange. In all the spots are black. 



The body is orange banded with black. The insect is called 

 tigrata because it bears some resemblance to the Tiger 

 Moths. 



We now come to the beautiful group of the Erateinas, which 

 look so much like butterflies that a casual observer would 

 be nearly certain to mistake them for those insects. They 

 are mostly Brazilian, and 

 in some respects remind 

 the observer of the Cata- 

 gramma butterflies, some 

 of which have already 

 been described. Some 

 species are tailed, while 

 others have the hind 

 wings simply rounded. 



The present is an ex- 

 ample of the tailed Era- 

 teinas. The upper wings 

 are olive green at the 

 base, changing gradually 

 to dark brown at the 

 tips. Across the centre 

 runs a band of pale, 



shining yellow-green. The greater part of the lower wings is 

 orange, paling to yellow at the end of the tails, and having a 

 dark brown stripe on the outer edge. 



This species inhabits New Granada. Another species, Erateina 

 Julia, somewhat resembles it, except that each of the lower 



z z 



Pia. 442. — Erateina leptooireata. 

 (Brown, green, and orange.) 



