Page:Jardine Naturalist's Library Exotic Moths.djvu/182

146 SATURNIA MYLITTA.

PLATE XIV. Fig. 2.

species, like several others of its congeners, is liable to considerable variation both in size and colour. The expansion of the wings is usually between five and six inches, although individuals occur exceeding these dimensions (the figure on the plate above referred to is somewhat diminished). The colour of the wings is yellowish-brown, varying a good deal in tint; each wing with a round transparent ocellus in the centre, those on the fore wings largest, surrounded first by a yellow ring, then a greyish band, and lastly a black line, the transparent pupil divided by a fine dark line; the anterior margin of the superior wings is grey, the base with two abbreviated light-coloured bands, and a narrow dark streak, commencing near the apical angle, runs across all the wings parallel with the exterior margin and not far from it; a faint arched black streak is observable over each of the eyes on the under wings. The thorax and abdomen are