AOIDALTA. By L. B. Prout. ' 67 



somewhat suffused with smoky throughout or in the basal area of the forewing, and even somewhat in shape, 

 as the distal margin of the hind wing is occasionally almost rounded but usually appreciably bent at the third 

 radial. — ab. conjunctiva ab. nov. is a not very rare form in which the first and median lines of the forewing conjunctiva. 

 are entirely united into a narrow brown band, the space between the median and the postmedian consequently 

 widened. — ab. sublactata Haw. is a rather rare aberration with only the two principal lines present, but sublactata. 

 these rather strongly expressed. Possibly brunneata Goeze (= strigata Geoff.) was founded on a less strongly 

 marked example of this same aberration, in which case Goeze's name would have priority, not only for the form 

 but for the species. Werneburg determined it for nemoraria Hbn., which does not occur near Paris (Geoff- 

 roy's locality) and is not, on the underside, "sans points". It may be here remarked that the synonymy of 

 the present species is in a more unsatisfactory condition than that of any other, probably, of the Acidaliids. 

 It is quite generally known that the name of remutata Schiff. (= remutaria Hbn.) was founded only on a misi- 

 dentification, but only Wallengreen had the courage to correct it and he used floslactata Haw., which I have 

 followed. It is much to be regretted that Werneburg's determination of spataceata Scop, is untenable, for 

 the discovery of a really early name would conduce to stability. In the mean time, quite a number of old 

 names exist which have sometimes been referred here, but mostly (concatenata Hfn., trilineata Hfn., centrata F., 

 dentilinearia Bkh.,inspersataSchr.) in move or less manifest error, lactata Haw. is well known to be synonymous 

 with floslactata and had "page-priority", but both were published together and I therefore follow Wallen- 

 gren's choice, without commending it. — ab. exstirpata F. Fuchs is a still rarer aberration with all the lines 

 obliterated, no dark marking except the speckles remaining. — The egg is laid upright, and is a long oval, 

 with truncate apex; the sculpturing consists of about 18 strong longitudinal ribs, the furrows crossed by about 

 25 — 27 much slighter transverse ribs; the colour is at first pale yellow, but becomes so strongly blotched with 

 crimson that to the naked eye it appears wholly of that colour. The larva is slender, rather uniformly cylin- 

 drical, the skin rather rough, the segmental divisions not very conspicuous; the colour varies from pale grey 

 to dark reddish-brown or olive-brown, the medio-dorsal line is slender and greyish and there are usually some 

 pale lateral marks. It hibernates almost full-fed, and seems more difficult to bring safely through the winter 

 than most of its congeners. The moth appears at the end of May and in June and is often abundant. It 

 usually rests among bushes by day and may often be observed sitting on the upperside of a leaf, not or scarcely 

 at all concealed. It flies lazily at dusk and is then very conspicuous. It occurs chiefly in woods and inhabits 

 Central and Northern Europe (except the Arctic Region), N. Italy and the Ural. — • claudata subsp. nov. claudala. 

 differs in having the lines thicker, in general slightly more ochreous, but not strongly expressed, the median 

 further removed from the inner line, being either placed midway between this and the outer line or even rather 

 nearer to the latter. The hindwing has its distal margin nearly rounded. Japan, without exact locality; type 

 in cell. L. B. Prout. Herr Pungeler has a pair from Yokohama, Mr. Wileman a $ from Oyama (Sagami), 

 19 May, and the British Museum a $ example from Oiwake. The aspect is decidedly different from that 

 of European floslactata and it may be a separate species, though it is probably the species recorded for Japan 

 under the name of remutaria. I can find no essential difference in structure. The S antennal ciliation 

 may be very slightly longer or the <$ hindtarsus slightly shorter in claudata, but neither is at all obvious. 

 I have not chosen the name to distinguish it from floslactata but from its other Japanese allies, one, at least, 

 of which (superciliata) is confusingly similar until the structure is taken into account. The discal dot of the 

 hindwing, as in the European floslactata, may be either present or absent. 



A. superciliata sp. nov. (4n, fig. 3) bears a very close superficial resemblance to floslactata claudata superciliata. 

 Prout, but differs materially in the <^ structure, which suggests that it is intermediate between floslactata and 

 immutata. The antennal ciliation is longer than in the preceding species and the hindtarsus is at least one- 

 half as long as the tibia. The ground-colour is slightly lighter or cleaner than in claudata, though still with 

 a tinge of yellowish, the lines on the whole not quite so thick, the forewing beneath more strongly suffused with 

 smoky, with conspicuous dark postmedian line and broad pale subterminal, much like that of marcidaria, 

 which differs essentially in its pale face. In the type form both wings have a small but conspicuous black 

 discal dot above, but this is very faint in a Yokohama ^ and may prove to be wanting in some $$. 

 The $ is not yet certainly known. If examples from Chang Yang (unfortunately without corresponding ^) 

 belong here, it seems to lack the discal dots and (like nearly all the group) to have the forewing beneath less 

 darkened than in the ^. Japan, type and a cotype in my collection ; Yokohama, in that of the British Museum ; 

 ? Chang Yang. 



A. confusa Btl. (3 m, 4 n) is considerably smaller than superciliata, the distal margin of hindwing confusa. 

 slightly more irregular, the ground-colour whiter, the yellowish markings still stronger, postmedian line even 

 more bent, darker-margined distally at the bends, both wings with much larger black discal spot. The ^ 

 hindtarsus is longer, at least two-thirds as long as tibia. A very easily recognized little, species. Distributed 

 in Japan, May to July and in September; also at Gensan, Korea. 



