Upper Side. Antennæ setaceous. Head and thorax brown. Tongue spiral. Wings dark hair-coloured, or russet brown; divided into two compartments by a clay-coloured line, which beginning at the anterior edges of the anterior near the middle, and crossing them and the posterior, meets at the extremity of the body: the inner compartment being brown, the outward one clay; which is again separated by an irregular waved line, beginning at the tips and ending at the abdominal corners. All the outward part is brown. Two black spots are placed on the anterior wings next the anterior edges, and near the middle.
Under Side. Palpi distinct, and like bristles at their extremities. Breast, legs, and wings light brown. A row of cream spots, angularly shaped, are placed along the wings; the outward part being furnished with about twenty-eight small cream spots irregularly placed. Margins of the posterior wings dentated, of the anterior entire.
According to Mr. Smeathman this species is easily disturbed during the day. It flies exceedingly rapid, and has a method of striking a leaf or bough at two or three feet distance from the place where it really settles. Whether this be done to break the violence of its motion, and enable it to settle without injury to its body; or for the purpose of deceiving its pursuers, is not easily ascertained; it has, however, the latter, and probably both effects; most of the locusts do this, for they certainly strike some branch with a good deal of violence just before they alight, the motion of which deceives the eyes and baffles the pursuer.
GEOMETRA ARGENTATA.
Plate [XIV]. fig. 2.
Order: Lepidoptera. Section: Nocturna. Family: Geometridæ, Steph.
Genus. Geometra, Auct. Subgenus. ——?
Geometra Argentata. Alis pallidè griseis, anticis fasciis duabus, posticis unicâ flavis, utrinque argenteo-marginatis his ocello marginali obscuro. (Expans. Alar. 1 unc. 9 lin.)
Syn. Phalæna (Geometra) Argentata, Drury, App. vol. 2.
Habitat: Jamaica.