37 



these insects, since it is found gradually obliterated in a series of the 

 species by the si)ace being more and more clothed with scales, until, 

 as in our common Saturnta, all that remains of the vitreous spot is a 

 narrow lunule at the base of the pui)il of the eye-like spot. Although 

 Mr. Duncan's observation, that " the species in which the fore-wings 

 of the male are most decidedly falcate have this form much less 

 strongly marked in the female ; where the former are not very strongly 

 falcate, in the female they become subfalcate {H. Promethea may 

 serve as an example), while the females of subfalcate winged males 

 have the exterior outline of their fore-wings either straight or slightly 

 curved outwards " — is correct, yet he has carried it too far in proposing 

 to unite together two msects belonging to different genera, and equally 

 far removed in their geographical range, namely the curious Saturnia 

 Lucina of Drury (which possesses very strongly falcate fore-wings, the 

 veins of which, as is evident from Drury' s figure, are arranged as in 

 the typical Saturniee, and which I find recorded in Drury's MSS. to 

 be a native of Sierra Leone) and the Assamese Bomhyx spectabilis*, 

 described by Mr. Hope in the Linnsean Transactions (vol. xviii. part 3, 

 figured in pi. 31. fig. 3. from my drawing), which possesses an out- 

 wardly rounded apical margin of the fore-wings, and which, as may be 

 seen from my figure, has a different arrangement of the veins of the 

 fore- wings, the apical portion of the disc of which is traversed by seven 

 branches, the innermost pair of the post-costal vein not being united 

 together in a fork on the disc ; the insect in fact belonging rather to 

 the group of which Lasiocampa is a good typef . 



* This species is the Bomhyx Certhia, Fabricius, Ent. Syst. iii. 412; Bomhyx 

 Wallichii, Gray in Zool. Misc. p. 39 ; and Phalcena maxima, Chxisan, Petiver. Gaz. 

 t. 18. fig. 3. 



t I may take this opportunity of describing a very fine new species of Lasio- 

 campa from Tropical Africa, in my own collection. 



Lasiocampa strigina, Westw. Z. alis anticis pallide incarnato-albidis strigis 

 quatuor fidvo-castaneis, postieis bast fuscis strigis tribus transversis albis, 

 pone medium fulvo-castaneis. 



Expans. alar. unc. 6. 



Hab. Sierra Leone. In Mus. nostr. 



The general colour of this insect is a rich chestnut-fulvous or sorrel colour. The 

 basal half of the fore-wings is of a pinkish buff, the pink tint being strongest at 

 the base, and extending across the hind part of the thorax. Between the base 

 and the distance of one-third of the length of the wng, are two straight, trans- 

 verse, chestnut-fulvous striga^, which are shaded off gradually to the pale ground 

 colour of the wing ; at the distance of one-third is another abbreviated striga of 

 the same kind (indicating the situation where the discoidal cell is closed). Acr')ss 

 the middle of the wing is a broad, more oblique chestnut-fidvous bar, siiaded off 

 in the same manner ; and beyond this, and parallel with it, is another narrow, 

 darker chestnut-fulvous, oblique striga, leaving a broad apical margin of chestnut- 

 fulvous, slightly clouded with au obscure paler wave. The principal veins of the 

 wing are indicated at a little distance beyond the middle by a double row of 

 minute chestnut dots, and along the apical portion by a brighter tint. The fringe 

 is claret-brown. The hind-wings are blackish-brown at the base, with three 

 transverse white fasciae, the outer ones being close together, and running nearly 

 across the middle of the wing ; the apical half of the wing being chestnut-fulvous, 

 with a slight indication of a paler fascia. The antenna; are very pale buff and 

 bipectinated ; the tips are broken off in my specimen, the part remaining having 

 seventy-three pairs of rays. Beneath, the wings are paler chestnut-fulvous, with 

 a darker duplicated striga across the middle, and some slightly indicated waved 

 striga; beyond the middle. 



