NOCTUIDiE. — BOMBYCIA. 51 



extremely obscure undulated striga about the middle ; the stigmata are oli- 

 vaceous, edged with pale ashy-brown, and between them, but nearest to the 

 posterior one, is usually a transverse irregular fuscous fascia : ciha chestnut- 

 brown : posterior wings fuscous, with pale reddish cilia. 

 Caterpillar extremely slender and green, with three white lines on the back and 

 one on the sides: it feeds on the sallow and poplar: — the imago appears to- 

 wards the end of July. 



More abundant than tlie preceding species, but not common : it 

 frequents the same haunts, and has also been taken in Devonshire 

 and near Hertford. 



Sp. 3. gracilis. Alis anticis emarginatis, fuscis, strigis duabus sesquialterd, 



marginibusque stigmatum pallidioribus. (Exp. alar. 1 unc. 1 lin.) 

 No. gracilis. Haworth — Te. gracilis. Steph. Catal. part ii. p. 96. No. 6309. 



Very similar to the last, of which it may be only a variety: it differs in being 

 rather larger, and in having the body longer and more gracile : the anterior 

 wings being of a deeper fuscous, and wanting the undulated posterior striga, 

 wliich is more or less conspicuous in the two foregoing species : the strigse 

 are placed as in the last, and the wings are of a more uniform colour. 



Found with the preceding, from which it is scarcely specifically 

 distinct. 



Genus CXXXI. — Bombycia, H'ubtier. 



Palpi very short, porrected nearly horizontally, the basal joints sparingly clothed 

 with long hairs, which project nearly to the apex of the terminal one, which 

 is not concealed ; two basal joints nearly of equal length, the first very robust, 

 subreniform, the second straight, attenuated to the apex, truncate, terminal 

 less than half the length of the basal, ovate-acuminate: maxillw rather 

 short. Antennas moderate, bipectinated and pubescent in the males, the pec- 

 tinations extremely short at the apex, s,ibserrated in the females, each joint 

 . producing a short bristle on each side : head small, with a rather elongate 

 fascicle of scales on the forehead : eyes globose, naked : thorax rather stout, 

 not crested : abdomen short, carinated, the sides and apex with fascicles of 

 scales in both sexes : wings entire, deflexed during repose ; anterior narrow, 

 elongate, the hinder margin rounded ; po^^erzor small, scarcely emarginate : 

 posterior tibice rather stout. Larva naked, smooth : pupa changes in a delicate 

 web. 



The pectinated antennae of the male sufficiently distinguish 

 that sex from the two preceding genera with which this genus has 

 hitherto been associated, and the short, straight palpi separate both 

 sexes from the above and from the following ; and the female is still 

 farther distinguished from Cymatophora by its abbreviated obtuse 



