292 HAUSTELLATA. — LF.PIDOPTERA. 



Genus CCXXVIIL— Hyria mihi. 



Palpi very short, ascending, clothed with short compact scales, obtuse, triarti-^ 

 culate; the basal joint short, robust, compressed ; the second as long again, 

 slightly attenuated, obtuse ; terminal subglobose, closely attached to the pre- 

 ceding : maxillcE short. Antennce somewhat remote at their origin, slightly 

 serrated within, ciliated and pubescent in the males, simple in the females : 

 head small; forehead with a compact ridge of glossy scales between the 

 antennae : ei/es small : thorax slender, simple : wings entire, rounded on the 

 hinder margin, placed in form of a triangle during repose ; all with distinct 

 fasciae, the disc varied, and towards the hinder margin with a flexuous striga ; 

 cilia \ery long, uneven: abdomen small, slender, carinated down the back, 

 with a small tuft at the apex : legs slender ; posterior tibiae in the males 

 without spurs, in the females with one pair (at the apex) only. Larva slender, 

 attenuated at each extremity ; pupa foUiculate. 



The beautiful insects of this genus are remarkable for having 

 the posterior tibiae of the males spurless, and of the females bical- 

 carated only, at the apex: these characters, united to the fine 

 purple colour of their varied rounded wings, are sufficient to 

 distinguish them from any of the following genera, some of which 

 resemble them in the first particular. 



Sp. 1. auroraria. Alis omnibus purpureis, maculis margineque Jlavis. (Exp. 



alar. 8—10 lin.) 

 Ge. auroraria. H'dbner. — Hy. auroraria. Steph. Catal. part ii. p. 150. A^o. 6706. 



Head and thorax purple, the latter yellow behind; wings purple, the anterior 

 with three large golden-yellow spots, rather indistinctly defined, placed in a 

 triangle, the two largest longitudinally on the inner margin, the other, some- 

 what rounded in shape, towards the costa ; the hinder margin is irregularly 

 bordered with golden-yellow, and the cilia are the same and immaculate: 

 nearly parallel with the posterior margin is frequently a fuscous or fuscescent, 

 slightly waved striga; posterior wings with only a central golden-yellow 

 spot, but in other respects similar to the anterior: forehead and antennae 

 white. 



Very variable : some examples are nearly all of a rich golden-yellow, with a 

 faint striga towards the base, and a broad one parallel with the linear margin, 

 rich purple ; others are nearly all purple. 



Caterpillar feeds on the greater plantain (plantago major) : it is grayish, with a 

 paler lateral and dorsal line: — the imago appears in June. 



Found in abundance somewhere in the vicinity of Croydon — the 

 exact locality I know not: also in Norfolk, and near Bristol. 



