76 ACID ALIA. By L. B. Pbout. 



nearly as long as tibia. A. emutaria cannot be considered a variable species, although some specimens are 

 much whiter, others much pinker. The egg is nearly always laid upright. It is elongate-ovate, the ends diffe- 

 ring less in breadth than in some species, both a little flattened; the longitudinal ribs are distinct, converging 

 into the micropylar depression, the transverse ribbing weaker; pale green, changing in two or three days 

 to pink, formed of a pale ground-colour blotched and ringed with crimson. Larva slender and elongate, 

 moderately smooth, with the usual lateral ridge; head rounded; ground-colour pale ochreous or greyish 

 ochreous, darker ventrally and with a dark dorsal stripe enclosing a pale spot on each segment; spiracles 

 black, conspicuous; on each abdominal segment from the first to the fifth a black dot is placed obliquely 

 beneath them. It feeds on Statice limonium and other plants. The pupa is light brown, abdominally darker- 

 ringed, the anal end dark, a little broadened and then tapering very abruptly to the eremastral plate. The 

 moth appears in June and July and there is sometimes a partial second brood at the end of August or in 

 September. It is very local, and as it hides low down among the herbage by day and is less easily disturb- 

 ed than most Acidalia it is perhaps often overlooked. It inhabits marshy places, especially salt marshes, 

 and may be found flying in plenty at dusk. It occurs chiefly in Southern Europe and North Africa, but is 

 also found in the South of England and in some localities in Austria-Hungary. 



flaccidaria. A. flaccidada Z. (41) is closely related to emutaria, and is regarded by Staudinger as a Darwinian 



form of it. The angle in the margin of the hindwing is strong (our figure therefore incorrect in this particular), 

 the median shade thinner and much weaker, placed further from the postmedian, the distal marginal line 

 or series of spots on the average rather better developed, both above and beneath, the discal spots larger. 

 The ground-colour is typically somewhat more yellowish or less pink. Two extreme colour forms have 

 albidarm. received separate names. — ab. albidaria Stgr. (= albicans Bhtsch. nom. nud.) is whitish without any ad- 

 mixture of yellowish or rosy. As it is recorded almost exclusively from localities in Central Asia, it may pos- 

 sibly prove to be a local race. Or again, as Staudinger suggests, it may represent the second generation 

 in certain places. But as it seems only to be parallel to the whitest forms of emutaria, and Bohatsch ( Jahresb. 

 Wien. Ent. Ver. vol. 2, p. 46) has recorded it from Slavonia among second-brood specimens, I incline for the 

 roseata. present to regard it as an aberration only. — ab. roseata Aigner (= rosea Bbl.) is suffused throughout with 

 bright rose-red, the markings deeper rose-red. The under surface, though strongly marked, is not abnormally 

 coloured. — The early stages of flaccidaria have been made known by Caradja. The egg is elongate- 

 ovate, laid upright, the micropylar end somewhat flattened; whitish yellow, becoming orange within 4 days. 

 The larva is said to resemble closely that of nigropunctata Hufn.\ probably Caradja did not possess that of 

 emuta.ria for comparison. Very slender, gradually tapering towards the head; mostly grey -brown or yellowish 

 brown, with a double dark dorsal stripe (in youth also with the ventral area dark); the abdominal segments 

 with pairs of blackish longitudinal streaks before and behind each incision, representing the vestiges of a sub- 

 dorsal line. Not known from Western Europe, its range only overlapping with that of emutaria in Austria- 

 Hungary and S. E. Europe; but extending through Asia Minor, N. Persia and Turkestan, as far as to the 

 Ili district. It is partially double-brooded. 



flaccaia. A. flaccata Stgr. (4 1) rather nearly resembles flaccidaria is colour and to some extent in markings, 



but is at once distinguished by the shape of the hindwing, which is only very slightly angled, sometimes scarcely 

 at all. The black discal spot is distinct on both wings, but the lines are usually very weak or almost obsolete ; 

 the median, which is sometimes better developed, is not oblique on the forewing as in flaccidaria, but vertical, 

 merely somewhat curved round the cell-spot ; the postmedian is irregular and dentate and is not marked with 

 black dots on the veins. The distal margin usually shows some minute black dots, but these are sometimes 

 wanting. The under surface is whitish, somewhat more tinged with yellow towards the margins; the discal 

 spots are reduced in size and the lines are absent ; sometimes, however, there are traces of a dentate subterminal 

 line on one wing or on both. The (J antenna is provided ^vith moderately strong fascicles of cilia; the hind- 

 tibia is not very strongly thickened and bears a single, short terminal .spur, which according to Staudinger 

 is sometimes wanting. In some specimens the ground-colour is more reddish. A. flaccata inhabits Palestine, 

 north and east of the Dead Sea, and has been taken in March and May. — The form from Biskra, which I name 

 languidata. languidata subsp. nov. is larger, rather narrow-winged, apparently always of the pale, weakly-marked form, the 

 hindwing whitish with minute cell-dot, forewing without cell-dot, underside unmarked. February to April. 



imitaria. A. imitada Hbyi. (41) is a very distinct species, bearing some resemblance to the genus Timandra. 



This is due partly to the shape, the apex of the forewing being pointed, the distal margin sinuous,, often ap- 

 preciably angled, and the hindwing having the same shape as in that genus; but still more to the markings, 

 the median line, though not so oblique as in Timandra, being equally sharply defined and usually followed 

 by some grey or reddish shading, the postmedian line of both wings is sinuous, as in T. amata. Ground-colour 

 beneath paler (particularly on the hindwing), but the forewing bears some greyish suffusion, at least in its 



