94 BRITISH MOTHS 



PENTHOPHERA, Germar. (LTPARIS, Hdbner, Ociis. Bdv.) 



This curious genus is well characterised by its semi-transparent hairy wings of a uniform blackish colour ; 

 the deeply bipectinated antennas of the males ; the want of a spiral tongue ; the small porrected palpi tenninated 

 by an acutely ovate joint ; ami the robust thorax. The females have the wings much smaller than in the male, 

 and the abdomen acutely subovate, with the extremity woolly. The arrangement of the veins of the wings 

 agrees with Hypogymna rather than with Spilosoma, but differs from both these groups in having the postcostal 

 vein and its branches in the fore wings pushed considerably into the disc of the wings, so as greatly to diminish 

 the ordinary size of the discoidal cell ; as we have also seen in Psyche, to which the genus is evidently 

 related. The caterpillars are tuberculated, each tubercle producing a pencil of hairs. 



SPECIES 1.— PENTHOPHERA NIGRICANS. Plate XIX., Fig. 3. 



SvNoNVMEs. — Penthophera nigricans, Curtis, Biit. Ent. pi. 213 ; Ciiitis ; Wood, Ind. Ent. pi. 7, fig. 80. 

 The expansion of the wings of the male is li inch. It is described by Curtis as semi-transparent, hairy, 

 ec- ^^ brownish-black, with a yellowish tint ; cilia and nervures darker, the former very short ; superior wings rather 

 long and narrow ; thorax and abdomen woolly, the latter beneath at the apex and the tarsi, silvery. The 

 female is unknown. From P. Morio, Linn., with which Boisduval unites it, it is distinguished, by having " the 

 pectinations of the antennre shorter, the thorax and body more robust, the latter much shorter, the superior 

 wint's longer and narrower, and the nervures diflerent in their proportions." Curtis. 



A specimen of the male was beaten from a birch-tree on the outside of West Parley Coppice, Devonshire, on 

 the 18th June, 1824, by 3Ir. Dale. Figure 4 represents the larva of the allied P. Jlorio. 



ARCTIA, SciiRANK. (CPIELONIA, Auct. Gall. EYPREPIA, Auct. Germ.) 



This genus, which corresponds with Iliibner's Hypercompaj colorccB, is perhaps the most beautiful group of 

 the night-flying Lepidoptera. The body is robust and very hairy ; the abdomen fasciated or spotted ; the 

 antenna' of the males hut moderately bipectinated or dcntated, and those of the fem.ales subdentate. The palpi 

 are pilose, of moderate size, and formed into a small deflexed beak. The spiral tongue is almost obsolete. The 

 fore wings are beautifully varied with dark and white spots and rivulets. The posterior ones are rich orange 

 or red with black spots. The females are of equal size, or larger than the males. The caterpillars are 

 tuberculated, the tubercles emitting long pencils of hairs, whence the name of Woolly-bears, given to them by 

 children. Tiiey are an excellent bait for the angler. There are at least twenty European species of the genus, 

 which Hiibner has distributed into a considerable number of minor divisions. In the works of our early English 

 systematic entomologists, several of these species were introduced, namely Ph. Bomb. jMatronula, Linn., by 

 Turton, Ph. B. Hebe, Linn., and Ph. B. aulica, Linn., by Martyn, and Ph. B. purpurea, Linn., by Stewart. As 

 there appears to be no sufficient grounds for the introduction of these species we have not represented them in 

 the present work : figures of them are given by Wood in his supplemental plates. 



SPECIES 1.— ARCTIA CAJA. Plate XIX., Fi.;. 5, G, 7, 8. 



SvNotn-ME9.— PA. Bo. Cfyn, I.iniKinis; Albin, pi. 20; Willtcs, I ILnvmth ; Wood. t. 7, Al'. 67. 

 pi. .tC ; Harris Aurclian, pi. 13, fig. g — in; Doniiv.in, 1, pi. 15; \ Zoole Cajii, Uuhntr, Verz. bek. Schm. 



This very common and variable species measures from 2;^ to .3 inches in the expanse of the fore wings, which 



arc of a rich brown colour, with numerous irregular spots and streaks of cream- white; the hind wings bright 



