Page:Jardine Naturalist's Library Exotic Moths.djvu/93

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AGARISTA PICTA.
85

A. picta is an elegant insect, measuring about two inches and a half between the tips of the wings. The fore wings are black, with a short longitudinal bar of pale green scales at the base, continuous with a bar of the same colour at the hinder part of the thorax; behind this is a curved and rather indistinct fascia of bluish scales, which is succeeded by a large oval orange-coloured spot, at some distance from which is an irregular row of six oval spots of the same colour; behind this a slight fascia of bluish scales, which is indistinctly continued in a serpentine form beneath both the orange bars so as to appear continuous with the middle bar of the hind wings; still nearer the apex of the wings are several patches of greenish scales, and the extreme tip is white. The hind wings are black, with a central cross bar of greenish-blue scales; and there is a dark pink fascia extending from the anal angle half-way across the wing. The thorax is black, spotted in front with pale green, and having a pale green transverse fascia at the base, and a broader one at the apex of the tippets. The abdomen is black, with a terminal tuft of orange-coloured hairs. The palpi, as well as the hairs round the eyes, are white: the breast and thighs clothed with long red hairs. The four anterior tibiæ have an orange line externally, and the tips of the tarsal joints are annulated with white. The anal apparatus of the specimen here figured is remarkable; consisting of two very large valves arising from the extremity of the body and recurved; between these