natural, history

o 17-18 nun.; ~ 19-21 mm. Palpus, head and thorax exceedingly variable incolour, being a mixture of white, smoke grey, raw sienna, dusky drab and fuscous,Abdomen fuscous; in the male the first segment bears tw~ pencils of long, fUSCOLJShair scales, one at each side, and a tuft of broad fuscous scales along the posterioredge.The fore wings in each sex are concolorous with the thorax; in many male specimensraw sienna predominates in the proximal and distal areas. The basal fasciaextends diagonally towards the tornus between the costa and the upper median vein,where it is right-angled to the base of the wing. The antemedial fascia is straight fromthe costa to the lower median vein, angled obtusely tornad to vein Cu2, then extendsstraight to one-third (If the inner margin. The medial fascia, when well marked,extends from one-half of the costa to one-half of the inner margin and is distally bulgedin the cell area with a beak-like projection along vein M 3; usually however this fasciais represented by three tufts of raised fuscous scales, one at the upper and one at thelower angle of the cell and a third on the submedian fold. A similar fuscous tuft issituate in the middle of theceU. giving the species a distinctive diamond-shaped patteTnoffour fuscous tufts. The postmedial fascia extends diagonally tornad from just distadof one-half of the costa to the discocellulars, where it is broadly rounded extendingbasad along the lower median vein and then straight to the inner margin. The subterm·lnal fascia is lunulate with an especially deep lunule between veins M I and M3. Thebasal, antemedial and medial fasciae are usually black; the postmedial and subterminalfasciae are usually white.Genitalia. Male. Uncus simple and short. Apex of gnathus tapered and lightlyscobinate. Saccus long, slender and tapered. Valve three times as long as broad witha longitudinal band of spines along the middle of the basal third; the apical third issclerotized, the centre part covered with about 40 short, ring-based, conical spines.Aedeagus longer than valve and slender; the basal third is sigmoid. The vesica bearsa dense cluster of small deciduous spines, which extend for more than one-half of thelength of the aedeagus.Female. Posterior half of ductus bursae slender and membranous; anterior naifbroadened and sclerotized; shaped as she\\on in the figure. Bursa copulatrix membranous,ribbed anteriorly and shaped as shewn in the figure. Ductus seminalis;membranous, slender at first then dilate to form a secondary sack.There are 40 and 2 ~ in the British Museum, collected at Lautoka in Fiji byH. PHILLIPS, which are placed provisionally with M. bradleyi. Whilst agreeing irlstructure with the type, they are decidedly greyer in colour; further material mayshew them to represent a distinct subspecies.The species is closely related to M. lichenigera Hampson (1905), differing principallyin the structure of the genitalia, which are illustrated (Figs. 35-37). In treatin~Iichenigera in the Cat. lep. Phalaenae B. M., 11: 261 (1912), HAMPSON described tW(aberrations under the headings 'Ab. I' and 'Ab. 2'; these were subsequently namocby STRAND.Ab. I, based on two males from W. Africa, proved on examination of the genitali;(Figs .• 4 I, 42) to be a distinc~ species, for which I propose the name M niothrlp~4: