Page:Jardine Naturalist's Library Exotic Moths.djvu/206

164 HARPYIA? BANKSIÆ. PLATE XVII. Fig. 2. Lewin's Lepidopterous Insects of New South Wales, pl. 9.

believe that this conspicuous moth has been referred to the genus Harpyia by Boisduval, but it may well be questioned whether that be its proper situation. It seems to offer sufficiently distinct marks to form the type of a new genus. The male expands upwards of two inches, the female three inches four lines. The upper wings are of a leaden colour, slightly glossed with purple, having several black marks, and freckled here and there with white and orange dots, and several clouds and dashes of the same. The hinder wings are brown and glossy in the female, whitish and silvery in the male, the base tinged with orange. Thorax black, with two large white patches spotted with red anteriorly; abdomen orange, with a rounded black spot at the side of each segment, and the hinder extremity black. The caterpillar (Plate XVII. fig. 3) is a very beautiful one and bears considerable resemblance to that of a sphinx both in form and markings. The