4 BRITISH MOTHS 



Species 2. — Speranza limbaria''. — (Plate LVII., Figs. 4, 5.) — Expanse, If inch. Wings clay-colonred ; 



fore wings with the fore margin thickly irrorated with brown specks, and a brown apical border ; hind wings also 

 J'id<rrt-<Lt^ thickly covered with brown scales, especially in the females. The caterpillar very slender, smooth, and green-brown, 



/rru/t-i' with yellov^ longitudinal stripes. It feeds on the broom, and the perfect insect flies by day, frequenting broom- 

 ed, 3, fields in the beginning of May and end of July, (Boisduval says in June). Mr. Haworth appears to have 



made some strange mistake in his description of this well-known insect. 



** Synonvmes. — J*Aa/iEfta /imjaria, Fabiicius ; Haworth; Stephens; Wood, fig. 452. 

 Geometra co?ispicuata, Wien. Yeiz. ; Hiibner; 117, 118. 



afcHiO 



BUPALUS, Leach. FIDONIA, p. Boisduval. 

 The fore wings are elongate triangular, varied with yellow and dusky markings ; the body slender, and the 

 antennae strongly bipectinated to tlie tips in the males ; the palpi are very short and concealed by the hairs of the 

 front of the head ; the females are larger than the males, with simple antennse ; as in tlie foregoing genus, the 

 males have a tubercle at the base of the wings, and they carry them erect wlien at rest ; the caterpillars are also 

 longitudinally streaked, and they repose at full length on the branches. 



Species 1. — Bupalus piniarius^ — (Plate LVII., Figs. 6, 7.) — Expanse of the fore vnngs, H-l| inch. 

 Fore wings in the male dark brown, with an elongate triangular pale buff patch in the discoidal area, and a 

 larger irregular one occupying the greater part of the vvdngs towards the anal angle ; its edges irrorated with 



brown; hind wings brown, with a large buff thickly irrorated patch, extending from the anal margin beyond the 

 middle of the wing, and with its apical margin scalloped and preceded by a slender irregular fascia : female, with 

 the ground-colour dirty reddish brown, with the dark markings much less distinct. Caterpillar green, with five 

 white and yellowish lines ; it feeds on fir-trees ; the perfect insect flying in fir plantations, especially in the north 

 of England, in June. 



e Synonyme. — PhaltBna Geometra Piniariaj Linnaeus; Donovan, 10, pi. 336; HUbner ; Haworth; Stephens; "Wood, 



Ind. Ent. fig. 453, bis. 



FIDONIA, Teeitschke. 

 The wings are rather short, broad, and rounded ; thickly irrorated with dark atoms, forming more or less 

 distinct striga; ; the anteunse strongly bipectinated in the males, the pectinations extending almost to the tip ; 

 the palpi very short and hairy, and the body slender. The females are winged, and of equal size with the males, 

 having the antennae very slender. The larv» are described as having ten legs and smooth, that of F. fuliginaria, 

 however, appears to be setose. 



Species 1. — Fidonia ATOMARiAf. — (Plate LVII., figs. 8, 9, 10.) — This species measures from 1^!^ to 1|^ inch 

 in the exjianse of the fore wings, which are extremely variable, botli in their white or buff ground-colouring, and 

 in the strength of the dark irrorations with which they are so strongly covered, and which unite in forming four 

 very irregular bars across the wings ; of these, the second and third converge together towards the hind margin ; 

 the third striga is interrupted in the middle, and the apical margin is often dark. A very common species, 

 found on heaths in June. The caterpillar is at first green, but afterwards yellowish brown, spotted with red or 

 brown, and with a longitudinal streak It feeds on various species of Scabiosa. 



