44 BRITISH MOTHS 



DESCRIPTION OF PLATE VIII. 



Insects. — Fig. 1. Hepialus TTcctus (the golden swift). 2. The Female. 



•* Fig. 3. Hepialus Lupulinus (the small common swift). 4. The Female. 5. A Variety. 



" Fig. 7. Hepialus Hamuli (the Ghost Moth). 8. The Female. 9. The Caterpillar. 



" Fig. 10. Hepialus Velleda (the map-winged swift). 11. The Female. 



*' Fig. 12. Hepialus Sylvinus (the orange swift). 13. The Female. 



" Fig. 14. Hepialus Carous. 



" Fig. 15. Anthroccra Trifolii. 



" Fig. 16. Anthroccra Mcliloti. 



Plants. — Fig, 17. Ihmnilus lupulus (the common Hop). 



II. Hcctus varies considerably in the distinctness of its markings, and I have selected one of the most distinct, both for the male and female. 

 H. Lupulinus varies so very much in its markings, that without examining intermediate specimens, one might be tempted to consider many of 

 them different species ; but the intermediate gradations easily convince of their identity. There is one variety, however, of a pale grey brown 

 entirely without marks, of which there are several specimens in the British Museum, that appears sufficiently distinct to form a separate species, 

 not only from its colouring, but also from a slight though constant and well-defined difference in the form of the wings. I have figured this 

 variety at No. 5. For the fcmalo of H. Humuli I have selected a strongly-marked female, but this does not vary so much as other species. 

 H. Velleda varies very considerably, but I have selected specimens in which the markin;;s appear most true and perfect ; it does not, however, 

 vary so much as H. Lupulinus. H. Sylvinus varies more in size than in the character of the markings, which all preserve pretty perfectly the 

 crescent in the anterior wings ; hut some of tlie females arc even smaller than the male represented in this plate, though their general character 

 is to be much larger than the males. 



The whole of the above are drawn from the very fine series of specimens in the British Museum, except H. Carnus, which is from 

 Mr. Stephens's plate. The caterpillars are from Hubner and Harris. 



The two Anthrocerse (omitted in plate vi.) arc from the collection of Mr. Stephens. H. N. H. 



HEPIALUS, Fabricius *. 



The species of this genus, which from the rapidity of their flight are known by the name of Swifts, are 

 at once distinguished from the other genera not only of this, but of nearly all other families of moths, by the 

 extremely ^hort antenna;, which are generally simple or slightly pectinated in the males of some of the species. 

 The mouth is obsolete, the tibire are destitute of spurs, the wings long and somewhat lanceolate, with the veins 

 singularly arranged (as represented, for the first time, in my " Modern Classification of Insects," vol. ii. p. 374, 

 fig. 104 — 16), the hinder wings being of large size, and the body is long and slender. The larvae feed upon the 

 roots of grasses and other vegetables ; they are long, fleshy, naked, and colourless, with sixteen feet. The 

 pupas have the abdominal segments furnished with transverse rows of reflexed points, whereby they push 

 themselves to the surface of the earth, out of which they may occasionally be found with the anterior part 

 of the bodv sticking above the surface. 



* Fabricius (Phil. Eat., j). 112) gives ^TrmXos, fobris Icnta, as the derivation of this name, which he places in the list of those names which 

 express some peculiarity in the habit of the species included in the genus; evidently alluding to the remarkable alternating fliglit of the ghost- 

 moth. Illiger and Ochsenheimer consequently erred when they (followed by Sodoffsky in the Moscow Transactions for 1837) changed the 

 generic name to Ilepiulus, supposing it derived from tittIoAos, Licht-motte, a moth which flies to the candle-light, which it is not the habit of 

 these insects to do. 



