A LIPARID MOTH DESTRUCTIVE TO FIGS IN MESOPOTAMIA. 183 



Ocnerogyia amanda. 



Ocnerogyia amanda, Staud., Iris, iv, p. 254 (1891). 



" (J. Head and thorax grey, tinged with reddish brown the lower part of frons 

 and palpi yellowish ; abdomen fulvous orange. Forewing grey, tinged with reddish 

 brown and irrorated with rather elongate pale griseous scales ; a rather diffused 

 blackish discoidal bar. Hind wdng uniform fulvous orange, the cilia brownish grey. 

 Underside of forewing without dark irroration or discoidal bar, a small rather 

 diffused fulvous orange patch below middle of cell ; hind wing with the costal edge 

 brownish grey. 



" $. Antennae with the shaft whitish ; abdomen pale grey tinged with brown, 

 the basal segments and sides tinged with yellowish ; hind wing pale grey, tinj^ed 

 with brown, the inner area with some pale fulvous hair ; underside of forewing 

 without the fulvous orange patch below the cell. 



Exj)., (J 38, $40 mm. 



Upper Syria: Mardin. Mesopotamia: R. Diyala, ^dJc\uha.{P. A. Buxton), 1 (J, 

 1 $inBrit. Mus." 



Description of the Larva. 



The larva presents points of difference from that of other Liparidae, and I have 

 drawn up the following description from spirit specimens in the last instar. 

 Unfortunately I was engaged with other work at the time when I found the larvae, 

 at the height of the Mesopotamian summer ; my notes only say that the skin was 

 grey-green in colour, and that the intersegmental membrane was neither paler 

 nor darker than the rest. The setae were silky and almost colourless. The general 

 appearance is shown in text-fig. 1 (A & B) and suggests an Arctiid rather than a 

 Liparid. There are none of the dense brushes of hair with which we are so famihar 

 in Orgyia and Dasycliira. The larva lacks also what Fracker calls " clavate-plumed 

 setae." The colourless setae are very finely and evenly serrate. It will be noticed 

 that long setae arise from the prothorax (actually from a large verruca formed by 

 the fusion of Kappa and Rho), and curve forwards over the head of the larva ; 

 these setae are more than half the length of the larva, but in fig. LB only their 

 basal half is shown. On the meso- and metathorax and abdomen the longest 

 setae grow out sideways on verrucae Kappa and Pai. Among the silky setae a 

 few brown ones (h.s.) may with difficulty be found. They are always long and 

 thick, and arise from the large verruca {g.t.) (Rho plus Kappa) of the prothorax 

 in some numbers, and as single setae on Beta of the meso-thorax, and Rho on 

 abdominal segments 1-8 inclusive. 



Chaetotaxy. The head. All the primary setae of Forbes can be easily seen 

 except ii, v, and vi. The last two are probably present but cannot be distinguished 

 with certainty among the rather large secondary setae which are sparsely scattered 

 over the lower and more lateral parts of the head. There is only one secondary 

 seta on the adfrontal, situated below adfrontal i ; this is fewer than is usual among 

 the Liparidae (Forbes). 



The thorax.* On the anterior margin of the prothorax, near the mid-dorsal line 

 is a small group of setae, alpha, beneath it a still smaller group of setae, two or three 



* In describing the chaetotaxy of the thorax and abdomen 1 have followed Fracker's 

 system. 



