Annals of the Transvaal Museum 
i8 7 
(from Emangeni) shows the basal patch rather lighter than the ground colour 
of the fore wing and not darker as in other specimens and as shown in illustra- 
tion. 
The description given by Distant is much too vague and if no good figure 
was given and the species was not as strikingly marked as it is, I would not 
have been certain of my identification. In my key several useful characters 
are given, but the direction of the sub-basal line, being oblique outwardly 
towards inner margin and the area before it being filled in with almost black 
scales, separate this species at once from the grey form of vernalis for which 
it might be mistaken, especially as basalis has also yellow scales between the 
black scales. The costa of the fore wing is also less curved at the base and the 
termen is more oblique than in vernalis. 
Hab. In Transvaal Museum one $ from Nelspruit (Nov. 1917, Dr H. G. 
Breyer) ; in coll. Janse 3 <$s from S. Rhodesia. (Emangeni, Jan. 1918; Umvuma, 
Dec.) 
Desmeocraera Thalassina. 
(PI. IV, fig. 9 .) 
Stauropus thalassina Hmpsn. A.M.N.H. 8. .v. p. 470 (1910). 
My two $ specimens agree in every respect with the description and 
both specimens come from the recorded locality (Salisbury, bred by Father 
O’Neil in March and May). 
Father O’Neil kindly sent me a drawing of the caterpillar from which the 
specimens were bred. This larva had 6 long front legs and four pairs of ab- 
dominal legs on the 3rd to 6th abdominal segments; the first and second 
abdominal segments had each a short hump and the last abdominal segments 
were turned up and the very last segment ended in two bristles as long as the 
breadth of that segment and placed in the shape of a V. It pupated for 20 days. 
The front tarsi of the moth show some brushes of spreading hairs which are 
not found in any other species of this genus, also the palpi are shorter and have 
spreading hairs. 
Desmeocraera Varia spec. nov. 
(Pi. XIII, figs, n, 12, 13; PI. IV, fig. 7.) 
A. Thorax, ground colour of fore wing and costal area of hind wing, water- 
green (xli) ; vertex of head, palpi in front, legs, meso- and metathorax and 
abdomen on the under side cartridge-buff (xxx) ; sides of palpi, hairs of pro- 
thorax on under side, on tibia and femurs of fore legs and rings on tarsi of all 
legs natal -brown (xl) ; abdomen on upper side except the terminal segments and 
the remainder of the hind wings on upper side verona-brown (xxix) ; terminal 
segments of abdomen water-green; at base of abdomen a tuft of water-green 
hairs and scales mixed with black scales and hairs on the sides; shaft of antennae 
with white and natal -brown scales ; branches clay colour (xxix) . 
Fore wing with all lines black, in some specimens beginning at costa with 
a natal-brown patch; sub-basal line confluent with basal line and erect till 
lower median, then excurved below lower median till antemedial line, some 
white and dark green scales beyond it; antemedial line double, very irregular 
and often obsolete, inner line heaviest, outer line thinner and preceded by a 
white line ; a whitish patch beyond it below lower median ; medial line absent 
from costa to vein 2, then faint and dentate on 1 b ; orbicular and reniform edged 
with white scales; postmedial line double, very irregular and much dentated 
on the veins, excurved at vein 7, incurved between 7 and 4, then erect to inner 
margin; space between the lines at veins 2 to 4 filled in with cinnamon-buff 
