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.
DASYCHIRA FORTUNATA.
Plate IV.—Fig. 11.
In colour a dull grey moth. The fore-wings are ash-coloured, variegated with whitish on the upper side. The reniform spot is rust-coloured in the male and whitish in the female. The transverse lines are black and dentated, the submarginal line maculated. The hind-wings are grey, with a slight lunule in the middle; the underside uniform grey. The body is less stout than the D. Fascelina (Linn.). The abdomen is long in the male and longer in the female. The antennæ are pectinated in the male, simple in the female. The legs are thickly clothed with hair, the feet yellowish beneath. Although the caterpillar has not been described, it presumably has much the same characteristics as its allies, and is probably greyish, with tufts of hair on its back; it feeds on the Pinus Canariensis.
This moth is allied to the English, and European species Dasychira Fascelina (Dark Tussock), but is probably peculiar to the Islands. It has been described as being found in the Islands of Palma and Hiero by Rogenhofer in the “Verhandlungen des Kaiserlich-Königlichen Zoologisch-botanischen Gesellschaft in Wien,” vol. 41 (for 1891), p. 566. The specimen illustrated was drawn from one of two presented to the South Kensington Museum by the Rev. O. E. Benthall, who found the chrysalides on trunks of the Canary pine near Guimar, Teneriffe, about 2,000 feet above the sea, and as far as the author can ascertain it has not before been recorded as occurring in Teneriffe.
DEIOPEIA PULCHELLA.
Plate IV.—Fig. 9.
This beautiful little moth, expanding about one and a half inches, is a very rare insect in Teneriffe at the present time, though two or three years ago it was found in great abundance near, and along, the coast during the spring months.[7] It has yellowish white fore-wings freely spotted with black, alternated with oblong red spots, not so numerous. The hind-wings are pearl-white, having a small blackish brown spot towards the top, and a marginal indented border of the same colour. The thorax and head are speckled with black and yellow. The body is light pearl-grey. The larva is dark grey with a broad white stripe on the back and reddish streaks on the sides. This species is abundant throughout Africa, the South of Asia and Europe, but a very scarce insect in England. Don Ramon Gomez kindly supplied the specimen illustrated.
[7]A single specimen was taken by the Rev. O. E. Benthall at Guimar in 1893.