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Show 291 MR. A. G. BUTLER ON A NEW FOSSI MOTH. [May 21, Thelites appear to me to be somewhat doubtful, Mr. Scudder's figure, if a facsimile of the original, might with less ingenuity be modified into a form of Castnia than into a Parnassius or Thais. As it is probable that the colouring of flowers began to develop prior to that of the insects which frequented them, it seems not unlikely that the appreciation of colour shown by Lepidoptera was gained by associating certain tints with their favourite flowers, and once acquired became unconsciously a consideration in the selection of mates : thus we find that in the Arctic regions, where bright flowers do not form a feature of the landscape, the Lepidoptera are dull-coloured, their sense of colour being naturally dormant1. LITHOPSYCHE, gen. nov. Nearest to Calospila and Craspedosis ; resembling Craspedosis extenuata of Timor most nearly in the size and form of the primaries, and Euschema minervaria of Burma in the form of all the wings, though differing much in colouring; but in the pattern of these wings much more like the less nearly related Prcesos mariana ; venation, so far as it can be followed, closely resembling that of Calospila leucomela ; the secondaries differing in form, the abdominal margin being longer, as in the males of Euschema proba and other allied greyish-blue species ; the abdomen extends to about four fifths of the length of the secondaries and terminates in a small tuft-like fringe as in females of Euschema ; the thorax is represented by a deep impression showing the divisions distinctly. L I T H O P S Y C H E ANTIQUA, sp. n. (Plate X X X I . figs. 3, 6.) Apparently originally black and white, the black having changed to a brown-umber, as in a faded example of Calospila picaria in the Museum; primaries with a white spot in the cell as in Bracca bajularia (Plate X X X I . fig. 1) ; a macular white oblique baud just beyond the middle, probably represented by the abbreviated hand of Calospila posthumaria, the less oblique and complete band of Craspedosis ernestina, and the broader antemedian band of Prcesos; three spots placed obliquely about halfway between this band and the apex and two nearer to the outer margin on the median interspaces, as in Prcesos mariana (Plate X X X I . fig. 4), also a bifid spot still nearer to the outer margin on the interno-median interspace ; the secondaries, which are for the greater part concealed by the primaries, show the lower portion of a narrow white postmedian band, sinuated internally and possibly macular as in Calospila posthumaria. Gurnet Bay, Isle of Wight (Mr. E. J. A'Court Smith). The type specimen is in the Geological collection of the Natural History Museum. Of the genera immediately allied to Lithopsyche, the Museum collection contains examples of the following species *- 1 I do not mean to say that there are no bright-coloured Arctic flowers; but they are not such as. from (heir size and abundance, would arrest the attention of any but a trained mind. |
