Page:Jardine Naturalist's Library Exotic Moths.djvu/176

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142
SATURNIA CYNTHIA.

with a broad transverse light-coloured band near the middle, the space within which (forming nearly an equilateral triangle) is brownish-grey, and that without ash-colour, running into brownish-grey at the margins of the wings; just within the margins there are two narrow brown streaks running parallel with them, somewhat interrupted before reaching a black spot near the apex of the superior wings; this spot is surmounted by a white crescent, and a zigzag white line runs from it to the tip. The basal portion of the superior wings is traversed by an ash-coloured bar, commencing on the posterior edges next the shoulder, and after continuing nearly in a straight line for about half an inch, is suddenly deflected and terminates on the anterior margin; between this bar and the transverse serpentine line, there is a pale longitudinal spot surmounted with black. The under wings likewise bear a similar spot, but more crescent-shaped; and towards their base, there is an ash-coloured arched bar, bounded on the outer side with black. The under side differs principally in being paler and destitute of the angular and arched bars at the base of the upper and lower wings.

The caterpillar of this moth is the Arrindy silk-worm, for an account of which we are indebted to Dr. Roxburgh, who published an interesting memoir on the silk-producing moths of the East Indies in the 7th volume of the Linnean Transactions. The eggs are described by him as numerous, ovate, pure white, about the size of a large pin's head. They