GREEN HANGING MOTH OF THE APPLE. 77 



CHAPTER LXXIX. 



GREEN HANGING MOTH OF THE APPLE. 



{Charagia lignivora, Lewin). 

 Order: Lepidoptera. Family: Hepialidce. 



The Hepialidce family of Lepidoptera is, to the 

 entomologist at any rate, very interesting, furnishing as 

 it does some of the most beautiful as well as the largest 

 and most destructive of all known moths. 



In Victoria this family is rather poorly represented ; 

 but in New South Wales and Queensland are found 

 such splendid things as Leto Staceyi, Charagia mirabilis, 

 C. Ramsayi, and others, the first-named moth being 

 from nine to eleven inches across the wings ; and the 

 larvae of all these insects are terribly destructive to 

 timber trees. 



In Victoria, however, we have a few fine and hand- 

 some species, the subject of the present chapter being, 

 as the plate will show, a beautiful moth. The upper 

 wings in the male are a soft pea-green color, with silvery 

 white markings, the lower wings being a very pale green. 



The female, which is somewhat larger in size than the 

 male, has the upper wings of a darker shade, with 

 purplish bands or markings across them, the lower 

 wings being of an orange-pink color, and the head a 

 dark brown ; and one not conversant with entomology 

 might think it a different species. 



It is a singular fact, while the sexes of most of the 

 species of Charagia so greatly differ in general appearance, 

 there are other species, as C. daphnandrce, in which the 

 sexes are not easily distinguishable, excepting in size, 

 to the ordinary observer. 



