164 



ORTHOLITHA. By L. B. Proux. 



own specimens from Digne certainly suggest a local race in their peculiar sandy grey tone (scarcely "clear 



gachtaria. grey") and weakly expressed central band. — ab. gachtaria Frr. has the ground-colour darker grey and the 



maritima. markings correspondingly darkened. — maritima Seeh. is a much more extreme form, almost uniformly infuscated 



(blackish), or at least strongly infuscated and with the bands blackish. It forms a local race at Bilbao, but 



sandalica. occurs elsewhere as an aberration. — sandalica Schawerda is lighter, cleaner bluish-grey, not brownish nor 



darkened, the postmedian dark band more strongly and sharply dentate. Herzegovina. Possibly a form of 



the following species? — Larva rather stout, flattened, with the setae strongly developed; variable in colour, 



whitish-ochreous or slate-colour, etc., ventral surface conspicuously striped. On various Papilionaceae. Pupa 



elongate, smooth, dull red, in a slight cocoon on the surface of the ground. Imago in July and August, easily 



disturbed by day but flying at dusk or especially later in the night, when it freely visits flowers and 



occasionally "sugar''. 



octodu- 



rensis. 



0. octodurensis Favre. Closely similar to bipunctaria but larger and more robust, the median band 

 somewhat differently formed, with stronger distal projections, the two dark discal dots not so sharply separated 

 as in bipunctaria. The colouring of the upper surface varies between blue-grey (according to Favre ''violaceous 

 brown") and bro^vn-grey. On the underside the costal margin and apical part of the forCAving are strongly 

 shaded with yellowish. July — August. Described from Valais but POngeler — on whose authority octodurensis 

 has been raised to the rank of a species — possesses a somewhat lighter form from Digne. Favre described 

 it as a variety of hipumtaria though expressing the surmise that it might well be a species. "Wullschlegel 

 suspects that the larva feeds on Ononis natrix. octodurensis is unknown to me in nature. 



alfacaria. 0, alfacaria Stgr. (= nevadaria Rbr.). In my opinion Bohatsch, Pungeler and Ribbe are right in 



referring this species to Ortholitha. <f antennal pectinations rather longer than in bipunctaria, to which it is 

 perhaps related. Wings rather elongate. Forewing dark brown-grey, with paler and darker waved lines; 

 median band little darkened, its central part remaining of the ground-colour; discal mark elongate. Hindwing 

 markingless, excepting a discal dot, which is also present beneath. Flies in the Sierra Nevada in July — August. 

 PiJNGELER (in litt.) says that he has a lighter from the Sierra Espuna. 



alpherakil 0. alpherakii Ersch. (I la) is recognizable by its very glossy wings and the weakness of its markings. 



It may perhaps best be compared with some weakly-marked aberrations of plumbaria, to which it shows some 

 approach in its leaden-grey shade of colour. It is, however, slightly narrower-winged, more glossy, with a 

 more elongate (or almost double) discal mark and has no real dark transverse lines, the somewhat greyer 

 median area being merely separated from somewhat more ferruginous subbasal and submarginal bands by 

 very fine, indistinct wavy whitish lines. Hindwing and under surface unmarked. Only known from the North- 

 eastern Caucasus. Two examples from the Zeller collection bear the manuscript name of schisfaceata Z. 



nebulata. 0. nebulata B.-Haas, described from Aintab (Asia Minor), is said to be related to alpherakii but quite 



different in colour. Forewing pale yellowish brown with the median area somewhat lighter, mixed with grey, 

 bounded by thick clay-yellow lines or stripes; discal dot also clay-yellow; basal and distal areas without 

 markings. Hindwing markingless, somewhat paler than forewing. Underside also paler and markingless. 

 Antennal pectinations of about the same length as in alpherakii. According to the figure slenderly built. Some 

 glossy, rather narrow-winged examples before me labelled "Syria" may probably belong here. 



B. cf antenna simple. 



puichrata. 0. pulchrata Alph. (^ cometifera Wurr., described as Kuldscha) (8 'c). This species certainly has 



nothing to do with ticotosia, to which Alpheraky referred it, while the wingshape and the discocellulars of 

 the hindwing separate it from Kuldscha. Except that the palpus is rather short, the ? agrees entirely with 

 Ortholitha; the cT antenna is simple also in one or two African species which I have referred to Ortholitha 

 (Onychia) and POngeler has proposed transferring here the three species described below, pulchrata is variable 

 in colour, forewing lighter or darker brown, but is easy to recognize by the form of the markings, which are 

 correctly shown in our figure; often the dark line distally to the central band is marked with strong black 

 spots on the veins. Hindwing whitish or in darker specimens pale brown-grey with whitish postmedian line 

 or band, whitish subterminal and small black discal dot. Distributed in the Thian-sha.n district. Warren's 

 type was received from a dealer and the locality "Amur" doubtless erroneous. 



adornata. 0. adornata Stgr. is nnknown to me but is evidently near pulchrata with which, according to its author, 



it altogether agrees in form and structure and in colour. The scheme of markings is also similar but it can 

 be distiguished at once by their being much straighter. The middle of the central area of the forewing forms 



