472 



BRITISH MOTHS. 



wherever the thrift abounds. (The scientific 

 name is Sesia Philanthiformis.} 



40*. The Cistus Forester (Proms Geryon). 



40*. THE CISTUS FORESTER. The antennae 

 are slightly incrassated towards the tip in 

 both sexes ; those of the male are serrated, 

 those of the female simple : the colour of the 

 fore wings is shining green ; the hind wings 

 are smoky-black and transparent ; the head, 

 thorax, and body are golden green. 



The EGGS, which are of a pale yellow colour, 

 are laid at the beginning of July in confine- 

 ment, and are scattered at intervals in the 

 box or cage in which the imago has been kept ; 

 the young CATERPILLARS emerge in a.few days ; 

 the full-fed caterpillars were found in April 

 by the Rev. E. Horton, to whom I am in- 

 debted for a supply : they were feeding on 

 the common sun cistus(Helianthemum vulgare), 

 on the Malvern Hills ; and the fact of their 

 feeding in July, and again in April, leads to 

 the conclusion that they hybernate. Unable 

 to supply my caterpillars with their proper 

 food-plant, I gave them sorrel (Rumex aceto- 

 sell(i), on which they fed freely and arrived at 

 maturity ; but Mr. Horton informs me that 

 although he offered them the sorrel they 

 would not touch it while the supply of cistus 

 lasted. The full-fed caterpillar, when dis- 

 turbed, falls off its food-plant, and lies on its 

 side in a cresccntic form, the two extremities 

 approaching but not touching. The head is 

 very small,' and entirely retractile within the 

 second segment ; the body is obese, almost 

 onlscitorm, gradually decreasing in size 

 towards both extremities ; the incisions be- 

 tween the segments arc well marked, the 



segments being distinctly divided; on each 

 segment are six warts, none of them con- 

 spicuous, but each emitting a thin fascicle of 

 short radiating bristles, among which are 

 interspersed a few longer silky hairs : every 

 part of the dorsal surface, the warts alone 

 excepted, is covered with minute papilliform 

 black dots. The head is black and shining ; 

 the second segment dingy yellow in front, 

 black and rather shining on the disk, and 

 purplish flesh-coloured beneath ; the medio- 

 dorsal stripe is dingy white, narrowly bordered 

 with very dark reddish-purple ; exterior to 

 these narrow borders is a broad dingy yellow 

 stripe on each side, swelling on each segment 

 into a rounded lobe; the sinuous exterior 

 margin of the yellow stripes is bordered with 

 black, which is gradually shaded off into 

 reddish-purple in the spiracular region ; the 

 belly and claspers are dingy flesh-colour; the 

 legs black. The caterpillars were full-fed 

 early in May, and spu'n a thin white silken 

 cocoon among the leaves of the food-plant, in 

 which they turned to CHRYSALIDS, which were 

 brown, smooth, and obese, the anterior 

 extremity acute, the posterior remarkably 

 obtuse ; the dorsal surface incised at the 

 segments as in the caterpillar, and the pos- 

 terior margin of each projecting over the 

 anterior margin of the next ; the wing-cases 

 are ample and clearly defined ; the leg-cases 

 extending to the extremity of the body ; the 

 colour is brown, with longitudinal series of 

 /darker dots, those in the middle approximate, 

 the others more distant. 



The MOTH appears on the wing in May and 

 June, and is common in certain localities in 

 Sussex, Surrey, Herefordshire, Yorkshire, ifec. 

 (The scientific name is Procris Geryon.} 



O/M t I announced this as a new British 

 species in 18G3, Mr. Doubledny having identi- 

 fied it with the Procris Geryon of Hubner. It 

 differs from Procris Statices, in the males and 

 females being of the same size, whereas in 

 that species the males are much larger : the 

 colour of the two is very similar ; the cater- 

 pillars are different, and the food-plant totally 

 so, that of the common Forester being the 

 sorrel (Rumex acetosella). 



