72 LLOYD'S NATURAL HISTORY. 



GENUS ERASMIA. 



Erasmia, Hope, Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. xviii. p. 446 (1841) ; 

 Walker, List Lepid. Ins. Brit. Mus. ii. p. 418 (1854). 



Antennae bi-pectinated, head conical in front, palpi short. 

 Body rather slender; abdomen about as long as the hind- 

 wings. Fore-wings oval, the costa arched, and the hind-margin 

 obliquely rounded; hind- wings rounded, longei than broad. 



A small genus, confined to the Indo-Malayan Region. The 

 following species is the type, and also the commonest of the 

 genus 



ERASMIA PULCHELLA. 

 (Plate LXXVIIL Fig. 2.) 



Erasmia pulchella, Hope, Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. xviii. p. 

 446, pi. 31, fig. 5 (1841); Westwood, in Jardine's Nat. 

 Libr. Exot. Moths, p. 91, pi. 3, fig. 2 (1841); Walker, 

 List Lepid. Ins. Brit. Mus. ii. p. 419, no. i (1854); 

 Hampson, Faun. Brit. India, Moths, i. p. 273, fig. 181 

 (1892). 



This Moth, which measures upwards of three inches in 

 expanse, was first brought from Assam, but is likewise found 

 in most of the adjoining countries of Northern India. The 

 prevailing colour is silvery-green ; the fore-wings are black, orna- 

 mented with greenish-blue silvery spots ; there is an irregular 

 orange-red band before the middle, separated by a bluish- 

 green band from a series of large white spots beyond the 

 middle ; the hind-wings are straw-coloured, black at the base, 

 and with a black border, not extending to the anal angle ; and 

 the nervures are greenish-blue. 



Concerning this species, Hope wrote as follows : " The 

 above insect is one of the most lovely in colouring of all the 

 Lepidoptera. When viewed by individuals standing in dif- 



