lis 



THE ARGENT AND SABLE MOTH. 

 Pkalcena Ilastala, 



PLATE LXXXIII. 



PlKilicna Hastatii, Linn. Syst. Nat. ii. p. 870 Clerk 



Phal. i. fig. 9 Donovan's Brit. Insects, pi. 129. 



Tub wings of this moth are wliite, beautifully 

 marked and spotted with black ; the thorax is black, 

 with three longitudinal white spots on the back; 

 the abdomen white, striped with black. 



The Argent and Sable Moth is a very scarce 

 British insect in the fly state, though its young 

 caterpillars are by no means uncommon in several 

 parts of Kent ; especially in the narrow lanes in 

 Darentwood, Dartford, in April, or early in the 

 month of May. It is, however, very difficult to 

 breed them, as they generally die in the pupa 

 state, or before they cast their skins, when cater- 

 pillars. Donovan mentions them in the summer of 

 1795 : he took several specimens of the caterpillar 

 and bred them, and yet he could only procure the 

 transformation of one moth, and that so crippled, 

 as merely to enable him to ascertain the species. 



The small caterpillars are of a dark purplish 

 colour ; when nearly full fed, they have a yellow 



