107 



HEPIALUS LIGNIVORUS. 



PLATE VIII. Figs. 1, 2, 3. 



Hepialus lignivoren, LewirCs Nat. Hist. Lepid. of New South 

 Wales, pi. 16. 



Examples have been already given of British He- 

 piali, * with some account of their general habits. 

 The foreign species are pretty numerous, and some 

 of them remarkable for their size. This is the case 

 in particular with H. crassus (Drury's Exot. Ins., 

 vol. iii. pi. 2, fig. 1), a native of Sierra Leone, 

 which measures upwards of half a foot between the 

 tips of the wings. They are in general of very 

 plain colours, but the species figured on the plate 

 above referred to is a striking exception in this 

 respect. It is in fact a highly ornamental insect, 

 the fore wings being of a brilliant yellowish-green, 

 divided into two patches by a waved band of a 

 faint ferruginous colour, intersected by dusky, and 

 several acute points of scarlet ; there are some short 

 marks of the same colour on the anterior edge. 

 The posterior wings are reddish flesh-colour, tinged 

 with blue at the base, the abdominal margin with a 

 black stripe. 



* Nat. Lib. Ent., vol. iv. p. 179. 



