Page:Jardine Naturalist's Library Exotic Moths.djvu/235

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ECNOMIDEA PITHECIUM.
185

head, and a rather larger pair over the tail. The individual figured by Madame Merian (Surin. Ins. pl. 28) has the lateral appendages rounded at the extremity, and the body is mottled. She affirms that it is venomous, and that the parts of the body which it touches become stiff and inflamed; a statement which the history already given of the larva of Doraticampa tends directly to confirm. The caterpillar of E. Hipparchia (according to Stoll) is of a uniform light brown colour; when it changes to a chrysalis the lateral flaps are folded round it. The moth is reddish-brown, the upper wings variegated with a lighter colour, each having a round white spot beyond the middle and a narrow curved band of the same colour not far from the anterior margin.

The moth here figured, E. Pithecium, has the upper wings bluish, with transverse waved bands of yellowish-brown, and more or less clouded with dusky: hinder wings entirely brown, with a narrow yellow line within the fringe; body of the female rather thick, thorax and abdomen bluish, the former brown on the side, and the latter with brown rings. The body of the male is wholly light brown with clouds of a deeper colour, the abdomen tufted at the apex. The female expands an inch and three lines, the male somewhat less.

The caterpillar (Plate XXI. fig. 3) is wholly brown, the head alone being yellow. It feeds on persimmon and the various kinds of oaks. Abbot states that it is found both in Georgia and Virginia, but it is very rare. His specimen spun on the 10th