gg BRITISH MOTHS 



streaks It dift'ers liovrovcr, in the more slender and acuminated abdomen of tlie females, furnished with a long 

 exsorted ovipositor, witli whicli the eggs are deposited nncovered ; wiiercas in tlie preceding they are enveloped 

 in wool stripped from the extremity of the body of the parent. 



SPECIES 1.— PSILURA MONACHA. Plate XVII., Fig. 4—7. 



SvNoNYMEs. Phal. Bomb. Monacha, LitinKus ; Haworth ; Wilkes, pi. 39 : Donovan, 7, pi. 227 ; Curtis, pi. 7G7 (ITyposryiuna m.) ; 



Wood, Iml. Ent. pi. 6, fig. 55 ; Duncan, pi. 19, fig. 1, 2. 



This handsome insect varies from I^ to nearly 2rj inches in the expansion of the fore wings, which are of a 

 creaniv white colour, with several black spots at the base, and four very much indented, curved, black streaks 

 dilated on the costa ; the two middle ones being contiguous together beyond the middle of the wing, and preceded 

 bv a black dot and anwulated line in the disooidal cell. The fringe is spotted with black ; the hind wings are 

 duskv, but vary in tlie depth of the tint, with a submarginal darker band, and a marginal row of black dots : 

 the abdomen of the female has the terminal segments (except the last one) pink, spotted with black. 



The caterpillar is ashy brown, with tufts of reddish hairs on the back, and a black heart-shaped spot on the 

 second seirment of the body. It feeds on the Scotch fir, bramble, birch, apple, oak, &c., in June and July, and 

 the moth appears in July and August. It is by no means a rare insect, occurring in various parts of the South 

 of England. 



ORGYIA *, OciisEN-HEiMEB. GYNAEPHORA, Hubner. 



This cenus Orgyia, as originally proposed by Ochsenheinier, and retained by Boisduval, was intended to 

 comprise those species of this family in which the larvre are furnished with thick tufts of hair on tlie back, — and 

 which is the case with the following species, namely, Bombyx antiqua, and gonostigma (gen. Orgyia, Steph.) 

 fiiscelina and pudibunda (gen. Dasychira, Steph.), Coryll (gen. Demas, Steph.), coenosa (Laslia), and V. nigrum 

 (Leucoma, Steph. spec, typ.) B. Salicls in this respect belongs, therefore, to a distinct section, and cannot be 

 retained in the same group with V. nigrum. 



As restricted by our English authors, Orgyia comprises those species which fly by day, with a vapouring 

 kind of motion (whence their English name of the Vapourers), which liave unwieldy partners, furnished witii 

 only very slight rudiments of wings, and therefore incapable of flight. They further differ from the two 

 preceding groups in their tufted larvaj and thick pilose fore feet ; from Dasychira they dilFer in their day-flying 

 habits, subapterous females, and short triangular wings of the males ; and from the subsequent genera in the 

 want of a spir.al tongue. 



SPECIES 1.— ORGYIA ANTIQUA. Plate XVII., Fig. 8, 9, 10. 



Synonymes. — /'Aa/i (-Bom6.)aH7i9«a, Linnwus; Haworth ; Albin, I Donovan, vol. 1, pi. 16 ; Stephens (Orgyia a.); Wood, Ind. Ent. pi. 

 pi. 89, fig. a— o ; Wilkes, pi. 64 ; Harris, Aurelian, pi. 20, fig. h— p ; | 6, f. 59, pi. 7, fig. 59. 



The male of this common moth varies from 1^ to H inch in the expanse of the fore wings, which are of a 

 red brown, with dusky clouds and two undulated strigK, the second of which terminates in a kidney-shajied 

 white spot near the anal angle of the fore wings, and with a pale, clay-coloured crescent-shaped discoidal spot. 

 The hind wings are dark orange brown. The female is dull ashy coloured, with the rudiments of wings very pale. 



The caterpillar is very handsome, being spotted with red, and with four thick whitish tufts of hair on the back, 

 and with long pencils of clavate hairs at the sides of the head, at the sides of the body, and over the tail. Those 



* Derived from the Greek upeyu, extendo, and yu'ioi', pes, from the mode in which the moths sit, with their fore feet e-xtended. 



