GEOMETRIDiE. HEMITHEA. 



179 



slightly bipectinated in the males, the pectinations ciliated and vanishing 

 towards the apex of the antennce, which is subserrate ; simple in the females: 

 head broad : thorax slender, slightly velvety : wings placed in a triangle 

 during repose, entire ; anterior with the apical angle acute, posterior sometimes 

 with the hinder margin slightly angulated in the middle : abdomen slender, 

 crested or carinated down the back : rather stoutest in the females. Larva 

 with 10 legs, smooth, elongated ; head deeply bifurcate, anterior margin of 

 the first segment with one or more points projecting forwards : pupa placed 

 in a slight web amongst leaves. 



Hemithea, like the preceding genus, is characterized amongst 

 other particulars by the virescent tints which adorn the wings and 

 body : the former are generally transversely striped with paler lines 

 or darker flexuous stripes: the larvae have the head cleft, as it 

 were, in front, with the anterior segments more or less spinous or 

 tuberculated. 



A. With the hinder margin of the posterior wings slightly angular. 



Sp. 1. vernaria. Alis omnino late viridihus, strigd subincurvd ante secunddque 

 pone 7nedium suhcommuni, ciliisque, albis. (Exp. alar. 1 unc. 3—5 lin.) 



Ph. Ge. vernaria. Linne.—Vh. Ge. lucidata. Don. iii. pi 97.— Hip. vernarius. 

 Steph. Catalpart ii. p. 122. N'o. 6482. 



Of a beautiful clear pale green, sometimes tinted with bluish, the anterior wings 

 with an incurved striga at the base, a slightly repanded one behind the 

 middle, and the cilia white; posterior with a single somewhat flexuous striga 

 behind the middle, and the cilia also white; forehead above and antennsE 

 white, lower part of front and legs reddish. 



Caterpillar green, with two reddish spines on the head, a pale-green line on 

 the back, and a delicate white stripe on the sides : it feeds on the oak, sloe, 

 traveller's joy (Clematis vitalba), &c. : it changes in a delicate web into a 

 brownish pupa :— the imago appears towards the end of July. 



In general very rare; but in the year 1819 I was at Darenth- 

 wood with some friends in the middle of July, and we captured 

 upwards of 100 specimens in the course of a very short period; 

 since which time I have met with but one other example, which I 

 took in fine condition, in a garden at Ripley, in July, 1827. 



B. With the hinder margin of the posterior wings rounded, 

 t Sp. 2. Smaragdaria. Alis viridibus, anticis strigis duabus pundoque medio 



albis. (Exp. alar. 1 unc. 5 lin.) 

 Ge. Smaragdaria. Fabricius,—Uip. Smaragdarius. Curtis, vii. pi. 300. 

 « Green : antenna whitish, underside and palpi ochraceous: eyes blackish : thorax 



with the anterior scales margined with ochre, superior wings with the costa 



