MOTHS. 187 



yellow in the male, and greyish brown in the female. Phyllodes, 

 Boisd., includes East Indian species, often measuring six inches 

 across the rather pointed fore wings. The hind wings are fre- 

 quently marked with a very large white and rosy spot near the 

 anal angle. Potamophora Manila, Cram., is a smaller East Indian 

 species, with a transverse blue bar on the hind wings but the 

 dullest-coloured genus of the whole family is Lygniodes, Guen. 

 (also East Indian), the species of which are blackish brown, with 

 the hind wings partly bordered with white. 



The ErebidoB are insects of large size, with long ascending 

 palpi. They have some resemblance to Geometrce, their bodies 

 being only moderately stout, and the hind wings being frequently 

 marked almost like the fore wings. They are insects of rather 

 dull colours, and most of the species are American. Thysania 

 Agrippina, Cram., is one of the largest moths known, measuring 

 nearly a foot across the wings, which are, however, not broad 

 in proportion, but rather long, slightly pointed, and dentated. 

 It is whitish, with many dentated transverse blackish lines, and 

 is no rarity in Brazil ; the genus Letis, Hiibn., contains much 

 smaller species. Erebus Odora t Linn., the type of the family, is 

 a dark-brown moth about seven or eight inches in expanse ; the 

 wings are marked with black and pale indented lines ; the fore 

 wings have a rather irregular black eye in a yellow ring, and 

 there is a bluish mark, like a thick double crescent, near the anal 

 angle of the hind wings ; the female has a pinkish band near the 

 borders of the wings. 



The allied family Ommatophoridce is more varied in colour, and 

 is nearly always marked with a large eye on the fore wings. The 

 species inhabit the tropics of the Old World, and do not attain 

 the gigantic size of the larger Erebidce. The largest species is 

 Patula Macrops, Linn., a common African and Indian moth, about 

 six inches in expanse. It is dark brown, with blackish markings 

 and dentated wings, and there is a very large eye on the fore 

 wings, marked with reddish, black, white, and blue. The species 

 of Nyctipao, Hiibn., are more elegant insects, being extensively 

 marked with white. Several of the species are more or less 

 suffused with purple, and the ocellus is sometimes marked with 

 blue. All the species are East Indian. In the allied African 

 genus Cyligramma, Boisd., the ocellus on the fore wings is much 

 smaller. 



Culliodes Orbigem, Guen., is a pretty brown and white 



