Hypercompe scribonia (Stoll, [1790])

Stoll, C. [1790]. Aanhangsel van het Werk, de Uitlandsche Kapellen,
voorkomende in de drie Waereld-Deelen Asia, Africa en America, door den
Heere Pieter Cramer / Supplément à l'ouvrage, intitulé les Papillons
exotiques des trois parties du monde l'Asie, l'Afrique et l'Amérique, par
Mr. Pierre Cramer: pp. 177-178, pl. XLI, fig. 3. Described as Phalaena
scribonia. Translated from the Dutch original (with parallel French text).

Fig. 3. Scribonia. On the preceding Plate 40, Fig. 8 and 8. H., I have given
the figure of the caterpillar and pupa of a moth which is to be found in
Vol. IV of Cramer, Uitl. Kap., on Pl. 344, Fig. F, G. In the description of
that caterpillar, p. 78, I at the same time made mention of this
silk-spinner now figured here, which had already been made known by Miss
S. Merian, Sur. Ins., Plate 10.

On the underside it has the body white, the spiracles at the sides of the
abdomen black, the legs are white ringed with black and at the feet blackish
blue; the wings do not differ there from the upper side, most accurately
figured here. The antennae are long and set with short hairs, just as is the
case in most of the silk-spinners; the proboscis is short and not visible to
the naked eye. The abdomen is thick, broad and dark yellow; the black spots
on it have a beautiful dark-blue sheen. This one is from New York, but they
are also found in Cayenne and Surinam.

Hampson, G. F. (1901). Catalogue of the Lepidoptera Phalaenae in the British
Museum, vol. 3, Arctiadae (Arctianae) and Agaristidae: pp. 374-375, no. 1918
(as Ecpantheria deflorata, with scribonia in the synonymy).

1918. Ecpantheria deflorata.

Bombyx deflorata, Fabr. Syst. Ent. p. 582 (1775); Kirby, Cat. Het. p. 907.
Noctua scribonia, Stoll, Suppl. Cram. v. pl. 41. f. 3 (1790); Riley, Rep.
Ins. Missouri, iv. p. 141, ff. 63, 64; Stretch, Zyg. & Bomb. N. Am. p. 174,
pl. 7. ff. 20, 21.
Phalaena oculatissima, Abbot & Smith, Lep. Georg. ii. pl. 69 (1797); Dunc.
Nat. Libr., Exot. Moths, v. p. 169, pl. 20. f. 4; Oberth. Et. Ent. vi.
p. 110, pl. 17. f. 5.
Bombyx chryseis, Oliv. Enc. Méth. v. p. 58 (1790).
Bombyx cunegunda, Beauv. Ins. Afr. Am. pl. 22. f. 4 (1824), nec Stoll.
Ecpantheria confluens, Oberth. Et. Ent. vi. p. 110, pl. 17. f. 3 (1881).
Ecpantheria denudata, Sloss. Ent. Am. iii. p. 212 (1888).

♂. Head and thorax white; palpi and frons metallic blue; antennae black;
tegulae and patagia with blue-black spots, sometimes filled in with white;
pro- meso- and metathorax with paired metallic-blue spots; pectus metallic
blue at sides; legs white banded with metallic blue; abdomen metallic blue
above, the base brown, dorsal and lateral series of orange spots sometimes
connected by slight segmental lines, the ventral surface white with
sublateral and ventral series of blue-black points. Fore wing white, with
subbasal, antemedial, medial, postmedial, subterminal, and terminal series
of blue-black annuli; an elongate spot in lower end of cell, a spot just
beyond discocellulars, and often two beyond lower angle. Hind wing white;
some blackish hair on middle of inner area, and a spot or streak on the
tornal lobe, which is large; often a discoidal point and some on termen
towards apex and tornus.

Ab. 1. confluens. Fore wing with the antemedial and medial series of annuli
conjoined, those in cell forming elongate streaks.

Ab. 2. denudata. Hind wing with the area beyond end of cell hyaline.

Hab. U.S.A., 2 ♂, 2 ♀, New York, 1 ♂, 1 ♀, Texas, 1 ♂, Georgia, 1 ♀. Exp.,
♂ 70, ♀ 82 millim.

Seitz, A. (1920). Ecpantheria. In: Seitz, A. (ed.), The Macrolepidoptera of
the World, vol. 6, The American Bombyces and Sphinges: p. 317, pl. 40 g (as
E. deflorata, with scribonia in the synonymy). (German edition: Die
Gross-Schmetterlinge der Erde 6: 317.)

E. deflorata F. (= scribonia Stoll, oculatissima Sm. & Abb., chryseis Oliv.,
cunigunda Beauv. nec Stoll) (40 g). One of the large species, ♂ and
♀-forewings densely covered with large, thick black rings; hindwing with a
black diffuse patch on the submedian fold and sparse marginal spots. Abdomen
stout, above quite blackish-blue or with only scanty yellow spots on the
abdomen and sides. — In ab. confluens Oberth. (40 g) the two middle rows of
rings are flown together to one, thereby containing very long-stretched
rings. — In ab. denudata Sloss. the hindwing is hyaline in the apical half.
— Larva, when grown up, blackish-brown, with similar tubercles, and dense
tufts of thick, stiff bristles of a blackish lustre. Head black with brown
sutures. Before each segmental indentation a dark purple transverse band, of
the same colour are the ventral feet and stigmata. It attains a length of 7
or 8 cm, being 12 mm thick. On Plantago, Polymnia tetragonothea, Ricinus
communis, and Euphorbia cyathophora, but also on numerous other low plants,
on Helianthus, willows, according to reports also on cotton and coffee. It
prefers particularly wet, sometimes flooded places; the butterflies are fond
of the light, where they may sometimes be met with together with the ♂♂ of
Zeuzera pyrina being of a somewhat similar exterior. From New York to the
south through the eastern states as far as Texas and Mexico; in most of the
habitats not rare.