

BA BRITISH MOTHS 
PGECILOCAMPA *, Sreruens. (DIAPHONE, pars, Husner.) 
_—eeeeeeew 

The wings in this genus are rather elongate and sub-diaphanous, but the abdomen is not furnished with a 
woolly mass at the tip. The antenne in the males are strongly bipectinated, and of nearly equal breadth to the 
tip. The palpi are extremely minute. The larve are solitary in their habits, rather depressed, and but slightly 
pilose. They form a coriaceous suboval cocoon of silk at a little depth under ground. 

SPECIES 1.—PQi:CILOCAMPA POPULI. Puarte X.,. Fie. 7, 8. 
Synonymes.— Phalena (B.) Populi, Linnzus; Donovan 9, pl. Pecilocampa Populi, Stephens; Wood, Ind. Ent., pl. 6, f. 46. 
307; Wilkes, pl. 48; Albin, pl. 85. | Diaphone Populi, Hiibner, Verz. bek. Schmett. 
The fore wings vary from 1} to 14 in expansion, and are of a purplish-brown hue, with the base and the 
slender inner margin brunneous, a buff stripe very much curved near the base, which does not extend to the 
inner margin, and a second one of the same colour considerably undulated beyond the middle; the fringe 
alternately grey and brown; the hind wings paler, with a slightly defined pale central stripe. The thorax 
dark brown, but pale in front. 
The caterpillar is pale ashy, with the back darker coloured, each segment with two pairs of red spots. It . 
is found in June on poplar trees. The perfect insect, which is rather uncommon (although found in many 
distant parts of the country) makes its appearance in December; when, as Mr. Haworth remarks, it and 
several other winter moths form an essential part of the food of our soft-billed birds. 
CLISIOCAMPA, Curr. (MALACOSOMA, Hisner.) 
ar 

This genus receives its systematic name on account of the gregarious habits of the caterpillars, which reside 
in a common tent or web ; and the species are termed lacqueys, from the red, blue, white, and black colours of 
the caterpillars, arranged in stripes like the dress of a footman. The abdomen is not tufted in the females; the 
antenne of the males are short, recurved, strongly bipectinated in the males, and slightly in the females ; the 
palpi minute and three-jointed. The wings are small in the males, acute at the tip, and not diaphanous. The 
caterpillars construct a loose silken cocoon suffused with a fine powder, having previously left the general web. 
The female has the instinct to arrange her eggs in an elegant spiral coil round the young branches of fruit-trees, 
on which the larvee feed, often occasioning great injury to them. 

SPECIES 1.—CLISIOCAMPA CASTRENSIS. Puarte X., Fic. 9, 10. 
Synonymes.— Phalena (Bombyx) castrensis, Linneus ; Hiibner, Clisiocampa castrensis, Curtis, Brit. Ent., pl. 229 ; Stephens, III. 
Bomb., fig. 177, 180. Haust., plate 13, fig. 2; Wood, Ind. Ent., t. 6, fig. 49 and 49. 
Malacosoma castrensis, Hiibuer, Verz. bek. Schm. 
The fore wings when expanded measure from 14 to 12 inches, those of the male being of a pale straw colour, 
with two dull castaneous bars running across the middle of the wings, the inner one incurved towards the base 

* Derived from the Greek, in allusion to the variegated colours of the caterpillar. 

