SPILOSOMA ARGE. 
174 
all the day and night without intermission. Soon 
they leave the meadows, aggregated in great num- 
bers, and commence the wandering state, or begin to 
run, as is the phrase, devouring every thing in their 
progress ; corn-fields, gardens, and even the coarse 
and rank produce of road-sides, afford them tempo- 
rary nourishment, until they have found a place of 
security from the wind and weather. * 
SPILOSOMA ARGE. 
PLATE XIX. Fig. 2. 
I’lialaena (Noctua) arge, Drury, vol. i. pi. 18, f. 3. — Phalirna 
(Bombyx) Dione, Fabr.; Abbot and Smith, Lepid. Georg ., 
vol. ii. pL 63. 
Nearly all the Tiger and Ermine moths are subject 
to great variation in their markings, but the present 
species seems to exceed even the usual limits in this 
respect. The ground colour of the upper wings and 
thorax is generally cream-colour, at other times it is 
of delicate pink ; the surface variegated with nu- 
merous black lines and angular spots. The hinder 
wings are either cream-colour or tinged with red, 
having a fulvous marginal line and many oblong 
black spots posteriorly. The antennae are black at 
* Quoted in Westwood’s Drury, i. 7. 
