1 12 HAUSTELLATA. LEPIDOPTKRA. 



Sp. 3. Heliaca. Alls anticis subcupreo-fnscis,fascid posticd pallidiore, sirigdque 



medio Jlexuosd nigra; posticis nigi'is, fucid medio luted.. (Exp. alar. 7 — 9 



lin.) 

 No. Heliaca. Wien. Ferz.— An. ? Heliaca. Steph. Catal. part il p. 108. A'o. 6392. 



— Ph. No. Arbuti. Don. x. pi. 343./. 3.— Gymnopa Heliaca. Steph. Nomen. 



second edition. 



Head, thorax, and abdomen deep fuscous, the two former with whitish dots, and 

 the latter annulated with the same ; anterior wings of a glossy coppery brown, 

 with an irregular flexuous black striga in the middle, followed by an obscure 

 broad indefinite palish band, between which and the hinder margin is an un- 

 dulated pale cinereous striga ; cilia luteous and black alternately ; posterior 

 wings black, with an irregular luteous fascia in the middle ; ciha luteous. 



The luteous fascia on the posterior wings varies in breadth and colour. 



Not uncommon in the vicinity of London, flying in the after- 

 noon in weedy lanes and meadows, on tlie borders of woods, espe- 

 cially at Coombe and Colney-liatcli ; also near Darentli and Birch 

 woods, Hertford, Ripley, the New Forest, &c. " York." — W. C. 

 Hewitson, Esq. " Epping." — Mr. H. Doubleday. " Coleshill 

 and Warwick."— i?gt;. W. T. Bree. " ^et\ej:"—Rev. F. W. Hope. 



Genus CXLIX. — Acontia, Ochsenheimer. 



Palpi rather short, curved upwards, and clothed with short compact scales, the 

 terminal joint distinct and conical; the basal joint nearly two-thirds the 

 length of the second, a little bent ; the second also curved, rather acute at the 

 tip ; the terminal elongate, slender, attenuated, acute : maxillw as long as the 

 antennae. Antennce alike in both sexes, simple, pubescent beneath: head 

 rather broad : e^es naked : thorax slightly crested ; abdomen slender ; wings 

 deflexed during repose, entire ; anterior rhomboidal ; cilia rather long ; pos- 

 terior slightly notched on the hinder margin. Larva fusiform, naked. 



The Acontise are all rare, and remarkably handsome ; their pre- 

 valent colours are white or cream colour, blotched or fasciated with 

 black or fuscous; they fly by day in the sunshine, and are distin- 

 guished with facility from the insects of the preceding genus, by the 



In Mr. Haworth's collection is a specimen of an insect closely resembling one of 

 the varieties of An. Myrtilli above described, which Mr. Haworth presumed 

 might be identical with Hiibner's No. albirena, or the No. cordigera of Thun- 

 berg; but the specimen in question evidently belongs to An. Myrtilli ; conse- 

 quently the existence of An. cordigera in England is problematical, as no 

 specimen is preserved in any of the numerous collections that have come 

 beneath my observation. 



