SPILOSOMA; MAENAS. By Ur. A. Seitz. 
307 
established by Kirby in his Catalogue of the Night-Butterflies (Vol. II, p. 224), but we keep up the name of 
the group with slight changes, so as to facilitate their survey. Instead of 38 genera with 245 species we enumerate 
here 22 genera containing 220 forms. The homogeneousness of the Spilosomini (Spilosornatinae Ky.) is exhibited 
more by the larvae than by the imagines. In contrast with the Callimorpliini they are more abundantly and 
more densely haired, compared with the Pliaegopterini more uniformly, and with the Pericopini more softly 
haired. The Hypsini (Aganaidi), being much lighter haired, so that the larva appears to be almost bare, have 
also a different shape, and are lazy animals in their larval stage whereas the larvae of the Spilosomini exhibit 
a most remarkable agility, which even influenced their denomination (e. g. lubricipeda). Both as imagines 
and larvae, they are most closely allied to the genuine Arctiinae and to the allied Micrarctiinae, for which reason 
we place them between these two groups. Their geographical range is universal. The single genera reckoned 
hereto are so closely allied to each other that Hampson, in his ,,Catalogue“, combined more than 30 to one 
single genus — Diacrisia. 
1. Genus: Spilosoma Steph. 
Imago stouter than the Spilarctia (confined to the Old World). Whereas the palearctic species are 
throughout white or cream-coloured, there occur in America also grey Spilosoma which, however, deviate from 
the typical species also in other respects. See Vol. II, p. 87. Only 5 species in America. 
S. virginica F. (39 b). Typical specimens are unicolorously white, only rarely some small dark scales virginica. 
may be discovered by means of the lens. — fumosa (39 c), however, are according to H. Strecker specimens fumosa. 
in which greyish shades extend from the apex of the wing sometimes far into the forewing; mostly only the 
apical margin is slightly sooty greyish. — Larva black, with black or also fox-coloured hair, the articular inden¬ 
tations white. Head black. — The species is distributed through the whole of the United States from Nova 
Scotia to Vancouver and extends to the north as far as Canada, to the south as far as Mexico; the butterfly 
is everywhere common, coming to the lamp on some evenings in great numbers; the larva may easily be bred 
with lettuce, Plantago, or lion's tooth. The species is not to be confounded with the likewise white species 
Mamas vestalis, Estigmene congrua and the following species. 
S. latipennis Stretch (39 c) is likewise white, but of a somewhat more transparent and purer snow- latipennis. 
white, whereas virginica is coloured more milky white. Anterior femora and hips rosy-red. — Larva velvety- 
brown, densely haired black, with white stigmata. Head yellowish-brown, above darker. Atlantic States; 
much less distributed and rarer than the preceding species. 
S. rubra Neurn. (39 c). £ grey, tinged rosy; forewings sometimes with a dark median band; costal ruora. 
margin, head, and thorax of a bright red, hindwings with yellow hair and fringes. Forewings broad, of a bright 
yellowish-brown, hindwings grey, mostly with a broad red margin. — In walsinghami Btlr. the ground-colour walsinglia- 
is a bright vermilion. —- In danbyi Neurrt. the thorax and forewings are dark brown, less tinged rosy, so that . uu 
the animal somewhat recalls a dark Phragmatobia rubricosa. In this British Columbian form the antennal shaft 
of the $ is red, the pinnae are black. —- Western parts of the United States, from British Columbia to California , 
but in many districts rare. 
S. kasloa Dyar, denominated by the habitat Kaslo (Brit. Columbia) resembles the following species; kasloa. 
thorax and forewings in the $ from dark to purple brown, the cell-end and postmedian band indicated by dark 
scales; hindwings black, veins and fringes reddish. $ carmine, forewings scarcely marked, hindwings almost 
entirely, or in the marginal area black. 
S. vagans Bsd. (= pteridis H.-Edw., bicolor Wkr.) (39 c). The $ has ochreous-yellow forewings, vagans. 
sometimes with faintly darker markings, the hindwings being either grey, except the yellow distal margin, 
or yellow with grey markings. The $ resembles that of rubra, but it is more one-coloured and darker, not so 
bright red. — In the form rufula Bsd. {— punctata Pack., proba H. Edw.) also the has yellowish-brown, rufula. 
instead of loam-coloured, forewings. Out West, from Washington (Terr.) to California. The yellow form is 
common, the red one being rarer. 
Genus: Maenas Hbn. 
Already on p. 237 in Vol. X, when dealing with the Indo-Australian Maenas, we have stated that most 
of the Americans which Hampson included in this genus, were here separated as a genus of its own (whilst there 
it was denominated Borseba Wkr.). In fact there are but few American species that may remain in this genus 
characterized in Vol. X, p. 237. Certainly, if we exclusively judge from the venation of the wings, we may 
be easily induced to combine the species mentioned here with the quite differently organized Pcilustra, Borseba, 
and perhaps even with certain Antarctia. We enumerate here only the white, light green, and some speckled, 
mostly unicolorous species which, having of late been mostly described by Rothschild, are reckoned to the 
Diacrisia (in the broader sense) by their author and by Hampson. 
