NOCTUID.i:. — XANTIIIA. 63 



In some specimens there is a strong fuscous angulated fascia between the stigmata i 



others are nearly quite plain. 

 Caterpillar dirty-green, with a whitish dorsal stripe and three pale lateral ones : — 



it feeds on the birch : — the imago appears towards the end of July. 



Very rare ; and I believe hitherto only taken on the borders of 

 Birch-wood, where, however, not above three or four specimens 

 have been captured within these ten years. 



Genus CXXXIV. — Xanthia, Hubner. 



Palpi rather short, obliquely porrected, thickly clothed with elongate scales, 

 the terminal joint slightly exposed and obtuse, basal joint less than half the 

 length of the second, rather slender at its base, curved upwards, second very 

 long, attenuated and somewhat acute at the apex, terminal elongate, apex 

 slightly conic : majcillm as long as the antenna;. Antenna; rather stout, long, 

 simple in both sexes, pubescent, ciliated transversely beneath in the males : 

 head round, small: eyes naked: thorax somewhat robust, slightly crested; 

 abdomen moderately stout, carinated in the males, cyhndric and rather acute 

 at the tip in the females, with a small tuft at the apex; sometimes depressed 

 in both sexes, with the sides slightly reflexed : loings entire or crenulated, 

 deflexed during repose : anterior subtriangular ; posterior moderate. Larva 

 naked : pupa subterranean. 



Xanthia, as at present constituted, is strictly an artificial group, 

 many of the species of which it is composed scarcely agreeing in 

 one particular, excepting in the flavescent or golden tints— 

 whence the name of the genus — which adorn their anterior \vings 

 and trunk : all however have the thorax slightly crested, the palpi 

 with the terminal joint not very much exposed*; but the palpi 

 themselves differ in their external form, some being obliquely 

 porrected, others nearly straight ; the form of the anterior wings 

 differs greatly, some species having them crenate and others entire, 

 but all are rather emarginate on the posterior margin ; again, Xa. 

 croceago has the abdomen very much depressed, with porrect palpi, 

 and evidently differs much from the rest of the genus, as does also 

 Xa. rufina, which has the abdomen rather elongate, the anterior 

 wings acute and somewhat reticulated, &c. : most of the species are 

 autumnal, some however are sestival. 



* By this term, when alluding to the terminal joint of the palpi, here and 

 elsewhere, I merely intend to express that this part (which is always clothed 

 with minute short scales) is visibly produced beyond the long scales which 

 usually ornament the basal joints, not that it is naked. 



