Page:Jardine Naturalist's Library Exotic Moths.djvu/263

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205

CATOCALA AMASIA.

PLATE XXVI. Fig. 3.

Abbot and Smith, Lepid. Geog., vol. ii. pl. 90; Oliv. Encyc. Method., p. 290.

Considerably less than the preceding, the wings expanding little more than two inches. Head and thorax light grey; abdomen yellow: upper wings variegated with ash-grey and white, the surface variously marked with dark spots and transverse streaks; in the centre there is an ear-shaped mark, and towards the exterior margin a dark zigzag line with a row of fulvous spots within it. The under wings are yellow, with two curved black bands, the innermost one narrow and not reaching to the abdominal margin, the exterior one broad and interrupted near the anal angle; the fringe yellow, slightly clouded with dusky.

The caterpillar is grey, with darker lines along the sides. Its most common food is the various kinds of American oaks; Abbot found it also on the Bead-tree, or Pride of China (Melia azedarack, Linn.). The author just named found that it spun among the leaves in the beginning of May, and came out near the end of that month. He adds,