LASIOCAMPA QUERCUS. 71 



(fcem.)*, 270 (mas) I, querals var. ; Freyer, n. Btr., i., Heft v., p. 48, 

 and Zusatz, p. 177; tab. xxvi., B. spartii." He then says : "Hiibner 

 long ago called attention to spartii as a species distinct from quercus, 

 but his figures were positively declared by Ochsenheimer and others 

 to be aberrations of the latter, so much the more as all examples 

 sent out by dealers as spartii were really nothing more than rather 

 common aberrations of $ quercus with narrower band, and the 

 darker redder $ also belonging thereto. The true spartii I found 

 among a small collection brought here from Sicily, but only males, 

 which, however, were again stated to be varieties, and of which 

 probably one passed into Hiibner's hands, and which he reproduced 

 as fig. 270 §. Dahl's residence in Palermo first cleared up the 

 matter; he found the larvae commonly on bramble and bred them. 

 The day before he left he further met with a worn $ , which laid 

 him nearly 200 eggs. They almost all hatched, and the larvae 

 accepted bramble as food. This was in October, the winter at 

 hand, and he had, therefore, to think of another foodplant. He 

 chose the garden rose, covered a number of stocks with gauze, and 

 placed the larvae on them, the latter, in a warm room, reaching a 

 size of 1 J inches after about 3 moults. They then rested immov- 

 ably on the stems for about 6 weeks, eating nothing, and shrivelled 

 up, and he thought he should lose them ; yet, in February, they 

 were again active, grew rapidly, moulted about six times more, and 

 on reaching the ordinary size of quercus larvae, spun up in the month 

 of May among leaves or on the earth among moss. In August 

 and September the moths emerged, and were like those reared in 

 Sicily the preceding year ; several pairs copulated at once, and 

 fertile eggs again resulted. Unfortunately Dahl's severe sickness 

 and death brought the whole colony to grief, and from the few at 

 my house, I obtained only males. The six-weeks' rest of the larvae 

 seems to correspond to the rainy season in their native land. We 

 took care often to sprinkle the rose-stocks with fresh water, and 

 saw that they greedily drank the single drops, as is also done by most 

 of the related species. The egg resembles that of querals, is oblong, 

 and pale brown, although greenish at first. The larva differs from 

 that of quercus in its higher fox-red colour, especially on the anterior 

 segments, in its more slender form, and especially in the lack 

 of hook-formed white lateral stripes. The protuberance in which the 

 spiracles stand as single white dots is bluish - brown. The seg- 

 mental incisions are velvety-black. The cocoon and pupa are as 

 in querais. The imago is as large as those of that species, the 

 3 s in particular are sometimes still larger. Few, but constant, 

 characters, distinguish the newer species. In the $ the ground 

 colour is a brighter purple-brOwn. The yellow line of the forewings 

 very narrow, almost straight, only at the costa a little curved. It is 

 sharply cut off exteriorly, while in quercfis the colour gradually passes 

 into the ground colour. The white spot is more widely removed from 

 the yellow line. The margin of the hindwings is bright yellow, while 



* Hiibner's fig. 224, represents a ratlier dark $ , most probably of German 

 origin (see, antea, p. 69, footnote). 



t Hiibner's fig. 270, £ =r thetvpe of our nb.marginata, n. ab. {antea, p. 67;. It 

 certainly is not var. sicnla, which has a very narrow band to forewings, and there is no 

 evidence whatever in support of Treitschke's view that it may have come from Sicily. 



