114 
CIDARIA. By L. B. Prout. 
gibliaia. C. gibbiata Costantini is unknown to me. “Related to juniperata, but the median area very different, 
constricted by the two ordinary waved lines, etc.” Monte Gibbio (subapennine region) and Bologna, rare. 
It may be doubted whether this is anything more than an aberration of the following, but the description is 
quite inadequate. 
juniperata. C. juniperata L. (Vol. 4, pi. 8 i). The pupa, well figured by Ljungdahl, has 12 hooked setae on the 
cremaster. A black form of the pupa, extremely rare in a state of nature (perhaps 2 per cent), was produced 
by Cockayne by keeping the larvae in the dark (in a biscuit-tin) from 20 August; of 229 which had pupated 
by 8 September, only 2 were green. C. Schneider has gone carefully into the question of a supposed occasional 
early brood of juniperata and finds no foundation for it; it appears that those collectors who reported 
minor, it had variata before them! — ab. minor Maslowscy is merely diagnosed in Latin as being smaller and of a pale 
colour, though there is a more detailed note in Polish. The figure shows a narrow but pretty complete band. 
caeca. I gather that the aberration is founded on 2 $2 from Zawiercie. — ab. caeca (Feustel) Osthelder is without 
any trace of the cell-spots. A series obtained at Wolfratshausen, together with specimens which agree with 
hiluscata. the description of istriana. — ab. infuscata Schwingenschuss (= nigra Cockayne). Both wings uniformly dark¬ 
ened with smoke-brown, the median band of the forewing only shown definitely by its fine white edgings. 
Oberweiden (Schwingenschuss) and N. E. Surrey (Cockayne). The latter author calls it blackish-brown and 
notes along the termen a series of narrow white interneural dashes, but I suppose the forms are practically 
istriana. identical. In the Surrey locality it is estimated that about 2 per cent of the juniperata are melanic. — istriana 
Naufock. Founded on 3 examples bred from larvae collected in the neighbourhood of Trieste, but believed to 
represent a local race. Apical streak of forewing heavy and continued conspicuously across the median band 
as in cupressata, from which of course it differs in the shape of the postmedian line anteriorly, as well as in 
■scotica. the larva. — scotica B.-White (11 c). Cockayne adds to my very brief diagnosis of this small, suffused Scottish 
race that it is more variable and produces a higher percentage of ab. divisa Strand and a few melanochroic 
specimens, the blackening most obvious on the abdomen and underside; he thinks it probably reached Scot¬ 
land with its food-plant, Juniperus nana, by the Scandinavian land-bridge, while the English juniperata came 
by way of the Channel, with Juniperus communis. It emerges somewhat earlier — mid September to mid 
privata. October (my earliest date for j. juniperata coincides exactly with Cockayne's, namely 5 October). — ab. pri- 
vata nov.. interesting as only known in j. scotica , entirely lacks the posterior third of the median band; Cockayne 
has found about 10 per cent of the $$ to belong to this form. 
praetecta. C. praefecta Prout (lid). I have not yet seen any further examples of this rather large Thera, but 
now give a figure of the Yokohama 2 (see Vol. 4, p. 219). The tone of colour, shape of median band and ab¬ 
sence of the black hindmarginal spot proximal thereto distinguish it from quadrifulta. 
B. £ antenna bipectinate. 
sountceana. C. sounkeana Matsumura is said to be closely similar to obliterata B. -White (obeliscata form) but with 
the antenna finely pectinate, all the lines of the forewing equidistant at hindmargin, the median and post¬ 
median nearly parallel in their hinder half, not converging, the postmedian highly undulate, obsolescent on 
the hindwing, the cell-spots fuscous, conspicuous; hindwing grey. Expanse “30 mm." Sounkei, Mt. Daisetsu, 
Hokkaido, 1 <J, collected on 9 August 1926. 
firmata. C. firmata Hbn. (Vol. 4, pi. 8 1). Pierce, by the genitalia, thinks this “seems to form a separate genus”, 
although closely allied to true Thera: but except in the squared, not pointed, saccus and the different position 
of the cornuti I see nothing distinctive; Djakonov would like to place it with Colostygia, perhaps on account 
of the pectinate B antenna. Regarding the hibernating stage, authors are still at variance; possibly, as with 
a few other Geometridae, this is not absolutely fixed. Carl Schneider states that the few previous writers 
who have given it as hibernating as a young larva are right, according to his own personal verification. 
Vorbrodt. contradicting him, quotes from voluminous records which he has collected, to the effect that it 
is really the egg that hibernates, and suggests that — as in many Swiss collections obeliscata is misidentified 
as firmata — a resultant confusion may have arisen; for obeliscata does pass the winter as a small larva. 
romis. C. comis Btlr. (Vol. 4, pi. 13 d). I ought perhaps to have given more detail regarding the antennal 
structure of this species, consimilis and dentifasciata. In comis the pectinations are scarcely longer than in 
firmata, although as the shaft is somewhat less robust the measurement in terms of the diameter of the shaft 
would appear relatively more favourable for comis. In all the pectinate Thera there are two pairs to each joint. 
0. comis is moderately variable, sometimes rather more reddish, sometimes rather greyer than in our figure. 
Moderately distributed in Japan, October and November; Djakonov has recorded a $, in poor condition, from 
the Ussuri district, Sterneck a $ from Ta-tsien-lu and one from Sunpanting and the Kelley-Roosevelt 
Expedition obtained a $ from near Shih-shah-shu (Kia-ting-fu district), 4 October. 
quadrifulta. C. quadrifulta sp. n. (11 d). Expanse 33 — 35 mm. Somewhat paler than comis and without any red¬ 
dish tone. Antennal pectinations far shorter, only about as long as diameter of shaft. Forewing with the 
