POECILOCAMPA POPULI. 467 



our British and the more northern examples, which are almost 

 purplish-black but with a slight brownish tinge developing into brown 

 at the base and along the costa and inner margin. Oberthiir notes 

 the ordinary European type as reddish-brown, whilst that at Eennesis 

 much darker and blackish-brown, possibly near the English form, 

 this latter we suspect being Linne's northern type. Some examples, it 

 is true, are rather deeper tinted than others, and some slight variation 

 exists in the intensity and direction of the pale transverse lines 

 crossing the fore- and hind wings, the pale outer line of the fore wings 

 sometimes being without the two angles, the line looking broken at 

 these points, in others it is strongly marked throughout. Gordon 

 observes the males captured at Corsemalzie as being of a rather light 

 brown colour ; Staudinger notes that Graeser bred some examples in 

 Amurland from oak, far darker than European examples. A male 

 from the Zeller coll. has the outer margin of the wings dusted with 

 grey, and the pale elbowed line, edging the central band externally, very 

 pale, whilst the central area is darker than usual and hence the 

 specimen appears to be distinctly banded. A very extreme form of the 

 banded aberration is figured by Herrich-Schaffer (Sys. Bearb., v., pi. 

 xxix., fig. 151). This is a male of ordinary shape, the thorax, 

 abdomen and bases of fore- and hindwings almost typical, but the 

 outer part of both pairs of wings whitish, and the central band of the 

 forewings almost uniformly black, a most strikingly banded form, the 

 fringes distinctly chequered (ab. virgata, n. ab.). Normally, however, 

 in both sexes the central area is not really darker than the outer area. 

 Barrett notes a specimen in the "Bond coll.," as being of a " semi- 

 transparent, pale, smoky-buff colour." Three different forms have 

 been described, the two south European ones possibly referring to 

 slight modifications of the same form, whilst the alpine form is also 

 referred to as the same race as that from the Biviera by some lepi- 

 dopterists. These forms are described as follows : 



a. var. canensis, Mill., " Lep. Alp. -Mar.," p. 194 (sep. p. 293) (1875); "Ann. 

 Soc. Ent. Fi\," (-5), vii., pp. 5-7, pi. i., fig. 9 (1877) ; "Rev. d'Ent.," ii., p. 41 (1883) ; 

 Bell., "Ann. Soc. Ent.Fr.," (5), vii., p. 367 (1877) ; Oberth., "Bull. Soc. Ent.Fr.," 

 (5), viii., p. 81 (1878) ; Auriv., " Iris," vii., pp. 143-4 (1894).— Bombyx canensis, Mill, 

 (sp. now). Envergure ( £ ) 37mm. Les ailes sont biendeveloppees, epaisses, moins 

 arrondies que celles du B. crataegi, mais moins aigues a l'apex que chez le B. populi. 

 Tout l'insecte est tres-velu, avec les ailes bien fournies d'ecailles. Les dessins sont 

 nets et les couleurs tranchees. Le fond des quatre ailes est d'un brun fonce, presque 

 noir au bord costal des superieures. II n'existe bien qu'une seule ligne, la coudee, 

 laquelle se continue sur les secondes ailes. A la place de la basilaire, on voit une 

 grande tache d'un fauve obscur entouree de blanchatre ; cette tache, placee a la 

 base de l'aile, occupe la moitie de la largeur de celle-ci. La ligne coudee est 

 blanchatre, ombree de noir interieurement avec le coude prononce qui touche a une 

 eclaircie aboutissant a l'apex. L'espace median ne porte nulle trace du gros point 

 cellulaire blanc qui caracterise si bien les Bombyx everia, loti, catax et lanestris. 

 Les ailes inferieures tres-obscures sons traversees diagonalement par une ligne 

 blanchatre, droite, ombree de noir interieurement. La frange, d'une largeur nor- 

 male, d'un blanc carne, est entrecoupee de brun rougeatre. Les antennes sont 

 brunes et fortement pectinee% Le thorax est presque noir et les pterygodes grisatres. 

 L'abdomen est d'un gris brun. En dessous, les quatre ailes se presentent a peu pres 

 ce qu'elles sont en dessus, bien que la ligne transverse soit moins apparente ; cepen- 

 dant la grande tache de la base des superieures a disparu (Milliere). 



INIilliere adds that the insect belongs to the same group as T. 

 crataegi and J', populi, has the same shape of wings as the former, the 

 lines placed as in the latter, but it would never be possible to confound 

 canensis with either of its neighbours, from which it differs also in its 



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