6 BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA. 



densely yellowish dusted, that they have a sharply defined, light basal patch, 

 acutely running outwards, and a sharply expressed light outer band. The latter is 

 continued (almost always) equally distinctly on the brown hindwings. In particular 

 the distinct light basal patch, mostly produced into two points, is not present thus 

 (pointed) in any similar species. When in the light varieties of bathseba and ratamae 

 a light outer band is present (which is rarely the case), it does not stand out so sharply 

 on all the wings as in josua, and is not curved in somewhat S-form, as in that species. 

 The ? ? of B. josua are far more densely light-sprinkled than the $ S , occasionally 

 they are on the forewings predominantly light. In these specimens the light basal patch 

 is narrowly brown margined, but also prolonged into a point ; the light outer band is 

 here internally sharply dark margined (as mostly in bathseba when it there occurs). 

 Only in the smallest (somewhat rubbed) very pale ? josua is the light outer band on 

 the upper side of the hindwings hardly perceptible at all. In all (josua) there is a dis- 

 tinct light, dark-margined central spot on the forewings. The underside is in most 

 specimens predominantly pale (only in some males the brown colour predominates); the 

 outer marginal part (behind the light band) is predominantly brown, intersected by the 

 light nervures. There seems to me no doubt that this B. josua must be a distinct 

 species from bathseba, since I have not received, among a great number of the latter, 

 - a single specimen which even approximately forms a transition to josua. Whether 

 Herr Paulus will really succeed in establishing constant differences between the larvre, 

 appears to me doubtful. The larvae of var. ratamae, found by me in abundance at 

 Cadiz, vary quite extraordinarily — much more than the very variable moths bred from 

 them (Staudinger). 



2. Eversmanni, Evers., "Bull. Mosc," 1843, hi., pp. 542 — 4, pi. x., figs. 2a 

 — c. — a. Gasteropacha alae anticoe supra ochraceo-luteae, ciliis, stiiga externa modice 

 flexuosa punctoque medio ferrugineis ; hoc albo-pupillato ; posticus fenugineae, 

 unicolores. /3. Ala? anticse spatio inter strigam et basin ferrugineo, postice luteo. 

 Comes near Gasteropacha medicaginis or trifolii, but differs in the yellow colour of 

 the forewings and especially in the ferruginous or cinnamon stripe, not yellowish ; the 

 stripe is therefore darker than the ground colour, while in G. medicaginis it is paler, 

 and is slightly flexuous, parallel with the outer margin. The yellow colour of the fore- 

 wings does not differ much from that of ? G. potatoria ; the ferruginous colour of hind- 

 wings hardly differs from $ G. medicaginis, except in being somewhat paler. Differ- 

 ence in size between the s and ? much less than in the related species ; ? differs 

 from s in rather paler colour. In variety ft the space between the base and the ferru- 

 ginous stripe is filled up with ferruginous, the yellow colour only remaining at the 

 posterior margin [i.e., inner margin] of wings. Larva differs from those of all the 

 allies : fuscous with bluish incisions, short ferruginous hairs, fulvous-spotted beneath, 

 laterally striped with yellow, anterior segments above varied with red. Feeds on 

 Caragana frutescens. Pupates end of June, imago appears after the middle of August. 

 Inhabits Ural and southern Altai districts (Eversmann). 



3. Nana, Staud., " Stett. Ent. Zeit.," xlviii., p. 99 (1887). Herzi, Chr., u Hor.," 

 xxii., p. 309 (1888). — Haberhauer sent me four bred females from Margelan, unfortu- 

 nately in part somewhat crippled, which can only be a dwarf form of eversmannii* 

 They measure 33 — 38 mm., consequently are only as large as ? neu ■ stria or castrensis. 

 My largest eversmannii ? measures 55 mm., my strikingly smallest from Sarepta only 

 40 mm. These var. nana of Central Asia either show no trace of the narrow brownish 

 outer band of the forewings, or, where (in two specimens) it is just faintly perceptible, 

 it stands immediately behind the median cell (thus about the middle of wing) and is 

 connected with a very faint brownish, light, granulated spot at the end of median 

 cell, only showing in one of the four ? s. It is very instructive that also in my small 

 Sarepta ? of eversmanni this brown band is brought back much further inwards, 

 close against the brown central spot- The distance of such bands from the outer 

 margin or central spot has very frequently been used in descriptions as a specific 

 difference (Staudinger). Christoph, under the name of herzi, diagnosed both sexes 

 [Horae Boss., xxii., p. 309) as : " cf ? • Ochracea ; ala* anticae stiiga obliqua 

 obsoleta punctoque medio ferrugineis. Long, ahv ant. g i(> mm., ? 19 mm. Dis- 

 tinguished from />' eversmanni by the more elongated wings — with a more oblique 

 transverse line, much more shortly pectinated antennae, and very different larva. 

 Schahrud. The larva in May on Lycium barbarum." 



4. Coneolor, Christoph, "bis," vi., p. 88 (1893). Proxima Bombyx herzi, 

 Christoph (=»a»a, Stand.). Alis ochraceis, venis leviter brunnescentibus J i. 

 Long, ahv ant. 3 15 mm., ? 20 mm. Hyrcania — Schahrud. 



* Nana was here described by Staudinger as a var, ol eversmanni. lie later 



considered it to be a distinct species. 



