RHYPARIOIDES RUFESCENS.
Plate IV.—Fig. 5.
This pretty moth is peculiar to the Islands, measuring rather more than two inches across the wings. It is red in colour, the hind-wings being brighter than the fore-wings. These latter are marked with longitudinal dark stripes in the female, dark spots being substituted for the stripes in the male. The head is dark red, shading off to lighter red on the richly-feathered body. The antennæ are red, being thicker and more feathered in the male than the female. The caterpillars are brown, thickly covered with long silky hairs, and are found mostly in barrancos, feeding on the dock and sorrel singly. They are also found in gardens, feeding somewhat indiscriminately on cabbage or hollyhock. When kept in captivity they can be reared on cabbage, and after attaining their full size of about one and a half inches, they make a slight hairy cocoon under a thin covering of earth. The caterpillar stage lasts about twenty days. They are found in January and hibernate in the pupa state till well on in the summer, sometimes as late as October or November, though some taken in January were brought to England and turned to moths on the 24th of June following. After being kept for a time the chrysalides become a very dark brown, almost black, so that there is a temptation to throw them away as dead, since they show so little life; but on opening the hard, stick-like skin, the creature is found to be quite fresh.