9 



Gen. PHALiENA. Fam. BOMBYX. 



Bombyx Tristis. PI. 8. 



SPECIFIC DESCRIPTION. 



Bombyx with yellow brown anterior wings, having a large earlike marking of black near the ante- 

 rior edge, a row of white spots near the end, and a row of yellow on the margin: posterior 

 wings dark brown, with a yellow fringe : abdomen checkered with several rows of yellow 

 marks. The male with several angular dashes of white on the anterior wings; anus tufted and 

 yellow in both sexes. 



We found the larva of this moth feeding on the plant here figured in the 

 month of January, the tender shoots of which it quickly strips of their little 

 foliage, and being a quick and ravenous feeder, soon gives the upper shoots 

 of this pretty shrub the appearance of so many naked branches, blighted and 

 decayed. It changes to pupa in February, spinning a loose case of a brownish 

 colour under a shoot of the shrub it fed on, gathering some leafy twigs to its 

 disguise, which it secured by webbing them together. In this state it remained 

 near a month, and the moth was on the wing in March. The female is shewn 

 at 4; the male at 3; the pupa in its spinning at 2; and the larva at 1. 



It inhabits the rocks near Sidney, where the shrub figured is found growing 

 in little bushes, it is perhaps the Pultencea Villosa of Willdenow. 



Obs. We have seen some specimens of the male of this Bombyx without those embellishing 

 white marks on the anterior wings as described above, and shewn in the figure, being altogether 

 more dusky. 



D 



