266 HAUSTELLATA. — LEPIDOPTERA. 



Woods. " Allesley."— ff^t;. W. T.Bree. " York, rarely;'— ^. C. 

 Hewitson, Esq. " Epping." — Mr. Douhleday. 



Genus CCXIX. — Charissa, Curtis. 



Palpi short, porrected obliquely upwards, not projecting in the form of a beak, 

 slightly remote, densely clothed with short scales ; triarticulate, basal joint 

 long, curved at the base; second slightly attenuated, terminal minute ovate: 

 maxillcE long. Antenna long, stout in the males, and compressed, the inner 

 edge produced and sUghtly pubescent; slender and simple in the females: 

 head small : forehead slightly prominent : thorax slender : wings placed in the 

 form of a triangle during repose ; anterior slightly crenate, posterior irregu- 

 larly indented; all vpith an ocellar spot or a round dot in the centre, and of 

 obscure colours : abdomen rather long, obtuse, and slightly tufted in the males, 

 shorter and acute in the females: legs moderate: posterior tihitje shghtly 

 clavate in the males, and furnished with two pair of short spurs. Larva with 

 10 legs. 



Charissa differs from the preceding genera by having the palpi 

 much shorter, those of the male being compressed, and somewhat 

 produced within ; the wings are short, rather deeply crenated or 

 indented on the hinder margin of the posterior ones, and in the 

 typical species furnished with an ocellar mark in the centre : the 

 posterior tibiae are also somewhat thickened and dilated in the type, 

 but scarcely so in the conterminous species. 



Sp. 1. obscmraria. Alis nigro pulverulentis subcrenatis, puncto medio ocellaris, 

 strigis duabus dentatis atris. (Exp. alar. 1 unc. 3 — 5 lin.) 



Ge. obscuraria. Wien, Ver%. — Ch. obscuraria. Steph. Catal. part ii. p. 140. 

 No. 6617. 



Dusky-black, with the wings somewhat crenate and very thickly pulverulent 

 with black, with a distinct ocellar dot in the centre, and the anterior with 

 two dentated strigae in the middle of a very deep black, and on the hinder 

 margin of all is a scarcely interrupted black line : cilia clouded with fuscous : 

 the dentated hinder strigae of the anterior wings is continued beyond the 

 middle of the posterior ones. 



Caterpillar above brownish-violet, with the three anterior segments brightest, 

 the following with yellowish stripes, and each segment with two white dots : 

 it feeds on the dewberry (Rubus caesius), and the southernwood (Artemisia 

 campestris) :— the imago appears in July. 



Very abundant in the New Forest, Hants, and also, I believe, in 

 Devonshire. " Baron-wood."— T. C. Heysham, Esq. 



