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V. Descriptions and remarks upon Jive new Noctuid 

 moths from Japan. By ARTHUR G. BUTLER, F.L.S., 

 F.Z.S., &c. 



[Read April 7th, 1886-1 



THE species here described have been recently received 

 from Messrs. Henry Pryer and George Lewis, who 

 collected them personally in Japan. 



The difficulty of dealing with aberrant types of familiar 

 genera, owing to the present imperfect definition of many 

 groups of Noctuites, is at once apparent when one has 

 to decide with what genus such a species as the first 

 here described has the highest claim to be associated : 

 that structural characters, as hitherto studied, are in- 

 sufficient to decide the point, is evident : that characters 

 exist in the present case, which can only be examined 

 by destroying the type- specimen, is probable from the 

 bizarre aspect of the insect ; but that this can only be 

 done where there are plenty of specimens to sacrifice, 

 is equally a lamentable fact. 



COSMIIDjE. 

 Cosmia curvata, n. s. 



In form and general coloration like Cerastis spadicea, the outer 

 margin of the primaries even more sinuous ; in structure almost 

 identical with Orthosia suspecta ; * primaries sericeous, purplish 

 slate-coloured with the exception of a submarginal band and the 

 fringe, which are bronze-brown; ordinary lines black, slender, 

 with whitish inner edges ; the first subbasal, angular, the second at 

 basal third, oblique and slightly curved, the third just beyond the 

 external third, nearly straight, but with a slight sinus at the point 

 where it is crossed by the first median branch ; a fourth indistinct 

 line, limiting the external border, nearly straight from costal 



* In neuration I can find no difference between Cosmia, 

 Orthosia, and Cerastis, the primaries having five subcostal 

 branches, all but the first starting from a post-discoidal cellule ; 

 the lower radial and second and third median branches being also 

 emitted close together. 



TRANS. ENT. SOC. LOND. 1886. PART II. (JUNE). 



