﻿260 The Philippine Journal of Science 1914 



Genus LETHE Hiibner 



Lethe Hubner, Verz. bek. Schmett. (1827), 56; Seitz, Macrolep. of 

 the World, Faun. Pal. (1908), 1, 82; Fruhst, Seitz's Macrolep. of 

 the World, Faun. Indo-austral. (1911), 9, 321. 



Subgenus Kirrodesa Moore 

 Kirrodesa MOORE, Lep. Ind. (1892), 1, 237. 



Lethe (Kirrodesa) sicelis Hewitson. 



PI. II, fig. 1, larva; fig. 2, head; figs. 3-4, dorsal aspect of segments; 

 fig. 5, pupa; fig. 6, food plant. 



Japanese name, hikage-cho. 



Debts sicelis Hewitson, Exot. Butterfl. (1862), 3, PI. 1, fig. 3. 



Lethe sicelis Pryer, Rhop. Nihon (1889), 32, PI. 9, fig. 10; Leech, 

 Butterfl. China, Japan, Corea (1892-1893), 1, 36; Matsumura, Cat. 

 Insect, Jap. (1905), 1, 14, No. 113; Matsumura, Thousand Insects 

 of Japan [Nihon Senchu Dzukai (Jap.)], 4, 98, PI. 72, fig. 1, $; 

 Seitz, Macrolep. of the World, Faun. Pal. (1906), 1, 84, PI. 31b; 

 Nagano, Nawa's Insect World [Konchu Sekai (Jap.)] (1910), 14, 

 590, PI. 24, figs. 1-12, transf.; Miyajima, Jap. Butterfl. [Nihon 

 Chorui Dzusetsu (Jap.)], (1904), 146, PI. 16, fig. 3; Fruhst., Seitz's 

 Macrolep. of the World, Faun. Indo-austral. (1911), 9, 322. 



The larva figured (Plate II, fig. 1) was taken in July, 

 1901, at Kobe, Settsu Province, on bamboo grass, sasa-gusa, 

 (? Lophatherum elatum Zoll.). From this an imago emerged, 

 but no record was kept of the date of emergence nor of the 

 sex. A second larva was taken by me, also on sasa, on September 

 9, 1900; this pupated on September 20, and emerged on Sep- 

 tember 25, 1900. The pupa figured is the pupa of the second 

 larva. I have also taken the larva of this species on kaya 

 (? Torreya nucifera S. and Z.), a kind of reed grass, and on 

 tsubana ( ? Imperata arundinacea Cyr.) , a species of grass. Two 

 males and one female were bred by me at Kobe from the larva?, 

 June 7 and 8, 1901. 



The following descriptions are taken from my original figures. 



Larva. — Length, 39 millimeters. Yellowish green; green me- 

 diodorsal longitudinal stripe edged with yellow lines on each 

 side; yellow midlateral and whitish suprapedal longitudinal 

 stripes; horns of head pink tipped. 



Pupa. — Light green with two rows of four white spots on the 

 dorsum. Suspended by tail from food plant. 



Pryer remarks that he took the larva of L. sicelis and believes 

 that it feeds on bamboo grass. Matsumura records the species 

 from Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu, but not from Hokkaido 

 (Yezo), where it does not seem to occur. Miyajima gives its 

 season of flight as being from July to August, but I have taken 

 it in various localities in the islands enumerated by Matsumura 



