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MORMON I A. By W. Warren. 



1. Genus: Mormonia Hbn. 



Tongue strongly developed; irons smooth; palpi upturned, the second segment roughly scaled, the ter- 

 minal short and blunt: antennae of cf almost simple; thorax smooth; abdomen with slight crests on proximal 

 segments; middle tibiae strongly spinose: hind tibiae with, finer spines; forewings large, triangular, 

 the termen crenulate; coloured in imitation of the grey lichen-clad tree trunks on which the insects rest in 

 form of a triangle, the grey forewings covering the more brightly coloured hindwings, generally with black 

 median and terminal bands. Larvae also protectively coloured, grey or greenish with slight humps, to 

 resemble the bark of tree trunks and shrubs; somewhat flattened in shape, with lateral series of fine fleshy 

 filaments; pupa in a slight cocoon among leaves and rubbish, covered with a purplish bloom; feeding in 

 spring on various trees and shrubs; Ihe imago emerges in autumn. Type: M. epione from America. 



* The first 6 species have the hindwings red. 



dilecta. M. dilecta Hbn. (54a). Larger and more uniformly coloured than sponsa. Forewing brownish fuscous, 



shaded with darker and sprinkled with whitish scales; inner line double, black, oblique, forming a prominent 

 tooth on submedian fold nearly touching the oval black-ringed pale spot beneath reniform; the reniform stigma 

 with an internal lunule edged with whitish scales and preceded by a paler patch in cell, often yellowish-tinged ; 

 outer line doable, black, forming two very prominent thick teeth on each side of vein 5; submarginal line 

 pale, zigzag, edged on both sides with blackish; a row of black pale-edged dashes just before termen: hindwing 

 crimson, with a narrow black median band outwardly angled above vein 5 and outwardly curved on submedian 

 fold: the terminal border broadly black, its inner edge running parallel to median band; fringe chequered 



obscurata. black and white; — the ab. obscurata Spul. is a rare form from S. France, in which the whole median area, 

 as far as the pale submarginal line, is filled wiih brownish black, the terminal area beyond it paler; — ab. 



olivescens. olivescens ab. nov. (54 a) is uniform dark olive grey grizzled with pale grey, without any dark or light 

 powelli. variegation; the lines and stigmata ail slightly marked; in the Algerian form, subsp. powelli Oberth. (54a) the 

 red of the hindwing is a much intenser crimson than in the European dilecta except those from Spain and 

 dayremi. Sicily; the forewings, as a rule, are somewhat paler and not so strongly marked; in the ab. dayremi Oberth. 

 (54 a) the whole forewing, as far as the pale subterminal line, is filled up with smoky black or brownish, 

 obscuring the markings, the terminal area remaining grey; the dark suffusion is strongest in the cfcf; this 

 forms corresponds to the ab. obscurata Spul. from S. France; the median band of hindwing varies in 

 thickness. Larva grey mixed with green, finely dotted with whitish or flesh colour; the dorsal line double, 

 widened on each segment; the swelling on segment 9 yellowish; shaded on both sides right down to the feet 

 with blackish: head pale brown with black streaks; feeding in spring on young oak trees. Occurs in S. Europe, 

 Germany, Switzerland, the Tyrol, Austria, Hungary, the Bukowina, Spain, S. France, Italy, Sardinia, and Greece; 

 also in Armenia and the Taurus Mts., and in Algeria. 



chila. jy\, dula Brent. (54 b). Forewing like dilecta, either with the pale tints much developed, chiefly in 



median area, at costa on each side of the median shade and above inner margin, as in the ab. fasciata of 

 sponsa L., or else with the pale markings overlaid with olive fuscous and the whole wing more uniformly 

 dark, the spot below the reniform generally dull yellowish grey instead of white; hindwing coppery red, 

 with the base and inner margin diffusely olive fuscous; underside of forewing with the white bands broad and 

 concise, of hindwing with the bands in costal half of wing broadly white, the base bluish grey. Restricted to 

 the Ussuri district, Amurland and Japan. The dark examples are typical; the pale forms, most strongly 

 albimedia. marked in the ??, may be separated as ab. albimedia ab. nov. (54b). 



sponsa. M. sponsa L. ('54 bl Somewhat smaller and paler than dilecta; generally with a pale fulvous tint 



below middle in the space between outer and submarginal lines; the lunule between veins 3 and 4 nearly 

 always paler; the pale outline of the reniform stigma, the whitish spot preceding it, and the white spot beneath 

 it often conspicuous; but both of these spots may be of the ground colour or yellowish, as well as white; 



rejecta. hindwing with the inner margin not darkened; the red ground colour not so deep; — the form rejecta Fisch.- 

 Wald. (54b) besides being smaller in point of size, has the hindwing clouded with fuscous in basal area; the 

 median band thickened, and the red band following it much narrower than usual; the terminal border brownish 

 black, and the red ground dull pink; to judge from the appearance only, this might well be a distinct species; 

 - examples in which the median space between inner and outer lines is prominently paler grey than the other 

 areas are separated by Spuler as ab. fasciata (54 b); — in ab. desponsa Schultz the red of hindwing is either 

 wholly yellow or partially changed to that colour; but examples of such change in this species are much 



ftorida. rarer than in nupta and elocata. — in ab. florida Schultz, which must come very near to fasciata Spul., the 



fasciata. 

 desponsa 



