500 
ACTIAS. By Dr. A. Seitz. 
maenas. 
roscnbcrgii. 
diana. 
set] a. 
and that in quite a similar way all the forms of Sarnia exclude each other everywhere, where definite races have 
not been introduced by mercantile or cultural interests. Thus the whole Indian Region exhibits a very homo¬ 
geneous distribution, since nearly every district shows but 1 Attacus* 1 Sarnia, 1 Cricula, and generally also only 1 
Actias and Antheraea; wherever several such genera are reported from the same country, the'y mostly turnout 
to be specimens not flying in the same district. 
Nearly all the Indian Saturniidae are large lepidoptera. The smallest size is exhibited by species with 
an expanse of at least more than 6 cm, such as the <$<$ of Solus send Cricula which yet attain the size of Aglia tau. 
Species with an expanse of hardly more than 3 cm, such as Cercophana jrauenjtldi in America or Ludia delegor- 
quei in Natal, do not occur in the Indo-Australian Region. For further particulars on the familv cf. Vol. 2, 
p. 209 and 210. 
1. Genus: Actias Leach. 
To this genus which is characterized in Vol. I, p. 210, we reckon the almost unicoloured Nile-green 
Tropaea Hbn., the quite monotonous Plectropteron Hutton , and the Argema Wallgr. which last are provided with 
very long spatulate tails and may be considered to be the tropical species, whereas the others belong chiefly 
to the temperate zone. Altogether we know about 12 palaearctic forms (to which some add the European 
Graellsia isabellae as the congeneric 13th form), about 4 Americans (presumably belonging to but 1 species), 
3 closely allied inhabitants of Tropical Africa, and 3 or 4 Indians. 
The large oval, smooth eggs are deposited in groups on the twigs or the trunk of the food-plant; fre¬ 
quently on such small bushes that the foliage is hardly sufficient for feeding the larvae. The result of this is 
that the adult, mostly bright green larvae lie on the stripped twigs like large green pods, being visible from 
very great distances. The larvae are equipped either with knobs or high dorsal cones from which coronea or 
tufts or bristles issue. The pupa is extraordinarily short, with a very thin shell, the abdominal segments are 
so much compressed that the whole abdominal portion looks like a small appendix attached to the thoracal 
portion of the pupa; nevertheless the pupa is able to make short swift movements with the abdomen. The 
pupa always rests in a cocoon which in Plectropteron is paper-like and thin, whilst in Argema it consists of a 
dense felt and exhibits a smooth, glossy exterior, with a corona of stigmata at the end of the head. Most of 
the species of the genus are now also frequently bred in Europe. The emerging imago bores through the inte¬ 
gument at the base of the wings in a unique fashion, by means of a horn-spike. As we have already mentioned 
in Vol. II (p. 210), the threads of the web are not cut through, but, with a sawing noise which is to be heard 
far away, the imago scratches the softened threads asunder by means of the thorn, until it pierces the cocoon. 
The imagines fly from late in the evening until night, but on being scared also in the daytime, in which case 
they may rise to an enormous height beyond the range of sight. In tropical towns, during the swarming period, 
numbers of them often fly round the lamps in the streets, where they even attract the attention of the layman 
by the long appendages of their wings. They are easy to breed; they feed chiefly on fruit-trees, such as Juglans, 
Mango, Carya, but also on many shrubs of most varied kinds. In the tropics the species mostly have two or 
more generations. 
A. Imagines with long-stalked tails, the ends of which are widened like 
flags. Larvae with high dorsal cones; pupae in a f e 11 - 1 i k e web which is 
mostly encased in leaves (= Argema Wallgr.). 
A. maenas Dbl. ( G = leto.D6Z.) (53 b as leto). The figure makes the description of the £> superfluous; 
we merely remark that the brown spotting varies even in specimens of the same breed. The $ is typically light 
yellow, towards the base with a Nile-green tint; behind the basal area of the forewing is a slightly curved darker 
transverse line, before the marginal area a line inwardly curved at the costa and inner margin and showing alter¬ 
nately longer and shorter dents. T hese transverse lines, however, may disappear nearly altogether. — rosenbergii 
Kaup is a lepidopteron from Amboina, the figure of which exhibits rectilinear stripes of 1 cm width across all 
the wings; Sonthonnax, however, already in 1897 explained this to be the effect of paper-stripes, beneath 
which the original honey-colour of the spanned lepidopteron had been kept from the light. The colours having 
been bleached for a long time, these traces have now disappeared on the type which I examined. Of greater 
importance is the entire absence of the eyespots on the hindwings, which, however, may be only an aberrative 
character. In the type (Mus. Darmstadt) which broke in the meantime and was repaired again the ocelli of 
the hindwings really seem to be absent, which fact is less noticeable in the specimen that is entirely bleached 
white today, than in the very finely coloured figure of Plot/, from the year 1866. — ab. diana Mssn. & Weym. 
is founded upon $$ from Java; the brown parts of the wings exhibit here more intense sulphur-coloured 
embeddings, particularly in the basal area below the costal stripe of the fore wing and within the dark bordering 
of the hindwing. They are aberrative forms hardly worth being denominated. — saja van Eecke, the Sumatran 
