TA B . LI.
P H A L JENA I L I C I F O L I A .
SM A L L L A P P E T M O TH .
QUE RCUS P H E L LO S . L I N N .—\3 ^ / T . iJOAT . K EW . V. 3. 354.
DWA RF W IL LOW -L EA V ED OAK.
2. B O M B Y C E S E L IN G U E S A L I S R E F E R S IS.
P h . Botribyx elinguis, alis rererfis femitedtis ferratis grifeis margine poftico albo variegato.
Phatena ilicifolia, Linn. Sj[ft. Nat. 813.
Bombyx ilicifolia. Fabr. Entom. emend. Vi 4 . 421.
Chenille grande e t longue, &c. De Geer Inf. V. 1. 22g. t. 14. f . 1—12.
F e e d s on th e W illow Oak, and other Oaks, as we ll as on the Afli. Spun itfe lf up
on the 3d o f May among the leaves in a grey brow n web, in which the chryfalis
was enveloped w ith a pale brown powder. T h e moth came out February 7th following.
I t is n o t a common ipecies.
Phauena ilicifolia, one of the rareft European infedts, feems to have been firft noticed by
De Geer, in the firft volume of his excellent work, publiflied in 1752. From him Linnams
introduced it into the fecond edition of Fauna Suecica, in 1761, and perfedt fpecimens of both
fexes of this moth are preferred in the Linnsean cabinet. With thefe fpecimens the drawings
of Mr. Abbot fo precifely agree, there can be no doubt of their reprefenting the fame fpecies,
except only the fpot on the fore wings of the male being, in the fpecimen, a minute dark
fpeck with a light tint about it, as in De Geer’s figure, yet not fo diftindt as in that figure.
Mr. Abbot delineates a light fpeck, without the dark one j but we do not conceive this cir-
cumftance to indicate any real difference. It is more wonderful that De Geer ftiould riot, in
his otherwife very exadl defcription of the caterpillar, have noticed its two red tranfrerfe
marks towards the head.
Coloured figures fuppofed to teprefent the fame infcS, in all its diflerent ft ages, are given
by Efper, Pit. 3. t. 8, and in the Nalurforfcher, Pol. 15. t. 3. In thefe the caterpillar has
red or orange-coloured marks like our’s, and from hence probably Fabricius's fhort defcription
of the larva is taken; but the figures are otherwife too rudely coloured for us to deter-
minewith certainty whether they be done from the fame fpecies as the American one, or a.
that of De G eer; neither is the colouring of the moth like ours or the fpecimens of Linnasus.
Efper’s bnulifolia has more of the true hue, but its caterpillar is different. With refpeft to
thefe two fynonyms however, the authors m utt anfwcr for themfelvcs. We venture, in fpite
of the little-difficulties above mentioned, to offer ours as the ilmfolia of Linnseus.
2 D