7798 Insects. 



Description of a Geometer probably hitherto uncharacterized. — 



Ephyea ? DECOKABIA, Newmati. 



About the size of Ephyra porata. Fore wings with the costal and hind margins 

 bluish lead-colour; disk of the wing tinged with delicate red, inclining to rosy, two 

 very distinct pale gray transverse waved lines, one of them short and situated at one- 

 fourth of the distance between the base of the wing and its hind margin, the other 

 twice the length of the first and situated at three-fourths of the distance between the 

 base and hind margin : near the centre of the wing, but nearer the costal than the 

 inner margin, and exactly intermediate between the two transverse lines I have de- 

 scribed, is a conspicuous white spot transversely elongate. Hind wings nearly the 

 same colour as the margins of the fore wings and almost without any tinge of red, and 

 having two transverse waved lines and a central white spot, nearly corresponding in 

 character and position with those on the fore wings ; cilia pale gray, corresponding in 

 colour with the transverse lines. Antennae setaceous. Head, thorax and body gray 

 lead-coloured. For the loan of this exquisitely beautiful moth I am indebted to Mr, 

 Shrosbree, who bred it in June last, from a lar^a which he found in May, feeding on 

 the bedeguar of a wild rose : he describes the larva as green, with a purplish median 

 stripe down the back. I am induced to give this moth a name from a knowledge of 

 the readiness with which experienced entomologists will kindly point out a previous 

 description when a species has been redescribed in error, although innate modesty 

 might have prevented their giving an opinion when the same insect was submitted to 

 their examination. This species, I may hint, is somewhat like the Phalaena albicinc- 

 tata of Haworth, whose description will do pretty well as regards the markings, but 

 the colour is totally different. " Alis nigris, singulis puncto medio, strigaque juxta 

 marginem posticum communi albis.'' The specimen is described by Haworth as being 

 in the late Mr. Hatchett's collection, which subsequently came into the possession of 

 Mr. Ingall. — Edward Newman. 



Description of the Larva of Semyra venosa. — Head scarcely so broad as the body ; 

 body of uniform breadth, warty, hairy, but without humps. Head shining black, 

 having a whitish spot just above the mouth, and a conspicuous pale yellow V-shaped 

 mark on the face, the apex of the V pointing towards the epicranium ; the cheeks are 

 also adorned with paler markings : ground colour of the body velvety black, each side 

 having two parti-coloured longitudinal stripes ; of these the upper or subdorsal stripe 

 is composed of a series of amorphous blotches or markings, alternately white and 

 orange-coloured, the whiter markings occupying the junctions of the segments, the 

 orange markings occurring between them ; the lower stripe on each side occupies the 

 spiracular region, and includes the spiracles ; like the upper stripe it is irregular, 

 interrupted, and composed of the same colours, white however predominating ; in these 

 stripes are seated the warts, mostly orange-coloured, and each emitting a sparse 

 fascicle of black and white bristles ; on the second segment is a fringe of bristles of 

 various length and colour, porrecled over the head : belly whitish gray ; legs 

 blackish at the base, flesh-coloured towards the tip, each having one black terminal 

 claw; claspers flesh-coloured. For a specimen of this beautiful larva I am indebted 

 to Mr. Brown, of Cambridge. It feeds on Cladium Mariscus, Arundo Phragmites, 

 and several of the coarser grasses. When full fed it cuts a number of the smaller 

 blades of the grasses on which it happens to be feeding, into lengths of an inch or an 

 inch and a quarter, and then spinning a cocoon, genera//?/ between two principal stems 



