Lithosia quadra dives (Butler, 1877)

Linnaeus, C. (1758). Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes,
ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis.
Editio decima, reformata. Tomus I: p. 511. Described as Phalaena (Noctua)
quadra. Translated from the Latin original.

quadra. 84. P. Noctua with setaceous antennae, smooth, with depressed yellow
wings: the upper ones with two black dots.

Roes. ins. 1. phal. 2. t. 17.

Wilk. pap. 24. t. 3. a. 17.

Habitat in Pine, Oak.

Larva hairy, the back with red dots and a black spot; the sides with black
lines. The moth in many respects approaches the phalanx of the Tineae.

Hampson, G. F. (1900). Catalogue of the Lepidoptera Phalaenae in the British
Museum, vol. 2: pp. 220-221, text-figs. 140, 141. As Lithosia quadra, with
Oeonistis dives as a synonym.

461. Lithosia quadra.

Noctua quadra, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 511 (1758); Esp. Schmett. iv. p. 82, pl.
92. ff. 2-6; Godt. Lep. Fr. v. p. 13, pl. 41. ff. 2-4; Steph. Ill. Brit. Ent.,
Haust. ii. p. 97; Hmpsn. Moths Ind. ii. p. 73; Staud. Cat. p. 55; Kirby, Cat.
Het. p. 335.

Noctua flava, Mull. Faun. Fridr. p. 46 (1764).

Noctua deplana, Linn. Mant. Plant. p. 539 (1771).

Oeonistis dives, Butl. A. M. N. H. (4) xx. p. 398 (1877); Ill. Het. B. M. ii. p.
7, pl. 22. f. 11; Kirby, Cat. Het. p. 335.

Male. Palpi, frons, and antennae black; vertex of head and thorax orange; pectus
orange; legs deep metallic green except towards base; abdomen orange, greyish
towards base, the extremity and ventral surface blackish. Fore wing grey, the
basal area orange, a blackish streak on base of costal area; terminal area
blackish. Hind wing orange-yellow, the costal area fuscous.

Female orange-yellow, 3rd joint of palpi and antennae black. Fore wing with deep
metallic green spots on costa just beyond middle and on vein 2 at middle.

Hab. Britain; Centr. & S. Europe, Zell. & Frey Colls.; Sweden; Russia; Armenia;
Siberia, Amur; Japan, 2 males, 2 females, type dives. Exp., male 36-48, female
42-58 millim.

A female from Sikhim in Coll. Elwes has vein 5 of fore wing absent, and will
probably be found to belong to a new species when the male is discovered.

Larva. Meyr. Brit. Lep. p. 25; Barrett, Lep. Brit. ii. p. 232, pl. 67. f. 3.

Dark reddish-grey, with tufts of long black and grey hairs; dorsal area pale
yellow streaked with dark grey; somites 3, 7, 11 with blackish dorsal marks; a
subdorsal series of red tubercles; some fine yellowish lines on sides; head
black. Food-plant, Lichens; 9-7.

Hampson, G. F. (1914). Catalogue of the Lepidoptera Phalaenae in the British
Museum, Supplement 1: p. 541.

461. Lithosia quadra, insert:--

Oeonistis quadra ab. confluens, Dumont, Ann. Soc. Ent. Fr. 1908, p. 406, pl. v.
f. 6.

Female. Fore wing with the two spots conjoined by a narrow band angled outwards
below costa, then oblique.

Seitz, A. (1910). Oeonistis. In: Seitz, A. (ed.), The Macrolepidoptera of the
World, vol. 2, The Palaearctic Bombyces and Sphinges: p. 63, pl. 12 d (German
edition: Die Gross-Schmetterlinge der Erde 2: 63). As Oeonistis quadra, with
dives as the Japanese form.

O. quadra L. (12 d). The male of the Large Footman is much smaller than the
female, brown-grey with a leaden gloss, thorax and base of wings golden yellow,
costa metallic blue-green at the base. The female yellow, the forewing with a
black-blue spot behind the centre of the costa and above the inner margin. --
The Japanese form, dives Butl., is said to have darker males; but the comparison
of a large number of specimens proves that this difference is not constant; the
male figured on plate 12 d is an authentic Japanese specimen which I myself
caught near Yokohama, specimens similar in all details occurring in Europe. The
European specimens vary considerably, the females with regard to the size and
the males in the colouring. In exceptional cases one of the dots (ab. unipuncta
Spul.) or both (ab. impunctata Spul.) may be absent in the female, or replaced
by a transverse band (ab. fasciata Spul., confluens Dumont). The area of
distribution extends over almost the whole of Europe and Northern Asia, from
Scandinavia and Livonia to the Mediterranean, and from the Atlantic coasts to
Amurland, Corea and Japan. A specimen from Sikkim which Hampson mentions is
exactly similar to the female of quadra, except for an anomaly in venation;
otherwise O. quadra is to be regarded as an exclusively Palearctic species. --
Larva slate-grey, with thin longitudinal lines, a transverse black spot each
across the back anteriorly, in the centre and behind, and subdorsally there are
longitudinal rows of small reddish yellow warts; until June on lichens on trees,
walls and stones. When the species becomes over-abundant a scarcity of food
results; the larvae then attack the leaves and needles of trees, and may become
injurious. Pupa black, with a porcelain-gloss, stumpy and immobile. The moth
appears in July or August; in the south of the area there is occasionally a
second brood.

Original description of the subspecies: Butler, A. G. (1877). Descriptions of
new species of Heterocera from Japan. Part I. Sphinges and Bombyces. Annals and
Magazine of Natural History (4) 20: p. 398. Described as Oeonistis dives.

20. Oeonistis dives, n. sp.

Nearly allied to quadra, but the primaries of a much deeper colour, the male
with the external sericeous border of a deep leaden-grey colour and of less than
half the width; the female with the primaries longer, bright orange; the
secondaries in both sexes paler. Expanse, male 1 inch 9 lines, female 1 inch 10
lines.

Yokohama (Jonas).

The wings of this species are somewhat narrower than those of Oe. quadra.