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94 BRITISH MOTHS 
PENTHOPHERA, German. (LIPARIS, Hisner, Ocus. Bpv.) 
This curious genus is well characterised by its semi-transparent hairy wings of a uniform blackish colour ; 
the deeply bipectinated antenne of the males ; the want of a spiral tongue ; the small porrected palpi terminated 
by an acutely ovate joint ; and the robust thorax. The females have the wings much smaller than in the male, 
and the abdomen acutely subovate, with the extremity woolly. The arrangement of the veins of the wings 
agrees with Hypogymna rather than with Spilosoma, but differs from both these groups in having the postcostal 
vein and its branches in the fore wings pushed considerably into the disc of the wings, so as greatly to diminish 
the ordinary size of the discoidal cell; as we have also seen in Psyche, to which the genus is evidently 
related. The caterpillars are tuberculated, each tubercle producing a pencil of hairs, 


SPECIES 1.—PENTHOPHERA NIGRICANS. Puare XIX., Fie. 3. 
Synonymes.—Penthophera nigricans, Curtis, Brit. Ent. pl. 213; Curtis; Wood, Ind. Ent, pl. 7, fig. 80. 
The expansion of the wings of the male is 14 inch. It is described by Curtis as semi-transparent, hairy, 
brownish-black, with a yellowish tint ; cilia and nervures darker, the former very short ; superior wings rather 
long and narrow; thorax and abdomen woolly, the latter beneath at the apex and the tarsi, silvery. The 
female is unknown. From P. Morio, Linn., with which Boisduval unites it, it is distinguished, by having “ the 
pectinations of the antenne shorter, the thorax and body more robust, the latter much shorter, the superior 
wings longer and narrower, and the nervures different in their proportions.” Curtis, 
A specimen of the male was beaten from a birch-tree on the outside of West Parley Coppice, Devonshire, on 
the 18th June, 1824, by Mr. Dale. Figure 4 represents the larva of the allied P. Morio. 

ARCTIA, Scuranx. (CHELONIA, Aucr. Garr. EYPREPIA, Avcr. Gero.) 
This genus, which corresponds with Hiibner’s Hypercompe colorex, is perhaps the most beautiful group of 
the night-flying Lepidoptera, The body is robust and very hairy; the abdomen fasciated or spotted; the 
antennze of the males but moderately bipectinated or dentated, and those of the females subdentate. The palpi 
are pilose, of moderate size, and formed into a small deflexed beak. The spiral tongue is almost obsolete. The 
fore wings are beautifully varied with dark and white spots and rivulets. The posterior ones are rich orange 
or red with black spots. The females are of equal size, or larger than the males. The caterpillars are 
tuberculated, the tubercles emitting long pencils of hairs, whence the name of Woolly-bears, given to them by 
children. They are an excellent bait for the angler. There are at least twenty European species of the genus, 
which Hubner has distributed into a considerable number of minor divisions. In the works of our early English 
systematic entomologists, several of these species were introduced, namely Ph. Bomb. Matronula, Linn., by 
Turton, Ph. B. Hebe, Linn., and Ph. B. aulica, Linn., by Martyn, and Ph. B. purpurea, Linn., by Stewart. As 
there appears to be no sufficient grounds for the introduction of these species we have not represented them in 
the present work : figures of them are given by Wood in his supplemental plates. 

SPECIES 1.—ARCTIA CAJA. Puarte XIX., Fie. 5, 6, 7, 8. 
Synonymes.— Ph. Bo. Caja, Linneus; Albin, pl. 20; Wilkes, | Haworth; Wood, t. 7, fig. 67. 
pl. 36; Harris Aurelian, pl. 13, fig. g—mj; Donovan, 1, pl. 15; Zoote Caja, Hiibner, Verz. bek. Schm. 
This very common and variable species measures from 24 to 3 inches in the expanse of the fore wings, which 
are of a rich brown colour, with numerous irregular spots and streaks of cream-white; the hind wings bright 

