Page:Jardine Naturalist's Library Exotic Moths.djvu/102

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92
ERASMIA PULCHELLA.

oblong, suboval, entire, the hinder nerve a little curved, the discoidal cell closed; posterior wings subrotund, the hinder nerves curved; body slender, subcylindric; head and palpi small; tongue long and spiral; legs slender.

The only species hitherto described measures about three inches two lines between the tips of the wings: prevailing colour silvery green; anterior wings black, ornamented with green-blue silvery spots, an irregular red bar before the middle, and large white spots behind the middle; posterior wings straw-coloured, black at the base and apex, the nervures green-blue.

"The above insect," says Mr. Hope, "is one of the most lovely in colouring of all the Lepidoptera. When viewed by individuals standing in different lights, the blue appears to one person to be a vivid green, to another of a lazulite blue. I have had drawings made by different persons; the first contends that the colour is green, the second that it is blue; in short, both are right; all depends on the situation in which the individual views the specimens."

This insect is likewise from Assam.