Utetheisa pulchella (Linnaeus, 1758)

Linnaeus, C. (1758). Systema Naturae, ed. 10, vol. 1: p. 534. Described in the
genus Phalaena (Tinea). Translated from the Latin original.

pulchella. 238. P. Tinea with white wings: the fore wings dotted black and
blood-red; the hind wings black at the apex.

Pet. gaz. t. 3. f. 3.

Habitat in southern Europe; in Mauritania. Brander.

Similar to Tinea Evonymella but twice as large, most beautiful. Fore wings with
scattered red and black dots intermixed; the posterior margin of the fore wings
dotted black.

Hampson, G. F. (1901). Catalogue of the Lepidoptera Phalaenae in the British
Museum, vol. 3: pp. 483-485, text-fig. 217.

2088. Utetheisa pulchella.
Tinea pulchella, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 534 (1758); Sulz. Gesch. Ins. p. 162,
pl. 23. f. 11; Steph. Ill. Brit. Ent., Haust. ii. p. 93; Moore, Lep. Ceyl. ii.
p. 67, pl. 104. f. 5; Hmpsn. Moths Ind. ii. p. 55; Staud. Cat. p. 56; Kirby,
Cat. Het. p. 346.
Noctua pulchra, Den. & Schiff. Wien. Verz. p. 68 (1776); Esp. Schmett. iv. p.
570, pl. 164. ff. 3-5; Godt. Lép. Fr. v. p. 23, pl. 42. f. 4; Curt. Brit. Ent.
v. pl. 169.
Geometra lotrix, Cram. Pap. Exot. ii. pl. 109, E, F (1779).
? Deiopeia lepida, Rambur, Cat. Lép. And. ii. p. 226 (1866); Kirby, Cat. Het. p.
346.
Deiopeia pulchella, var. candida, Butl. Trans. Ent. Soc. 1877, p. 361.
Deiopeia thyter, Butl. Trans. Ent. Soc. 1877, p. 361; Kirby, Cat. Het. p. 346.

Head and thorax yellowish white; 2nd joint of palpi, vertex of head, tegulae,
patagia, and thorax with orange spots; 3rd joint of palpi, antennae, and spots
on tegulae, patagia, and pro- meso- and metathorax black; pectus spotted with
black; legs streaked with black; abdomen white, with sublateral series of black
points. Fore wing yellowish white; a black point at base of costa; a curved
subbasal series of three black spots followed by scarlet spots on costa and
above vein 1; a curved antemedial series of five black spots followed by scarlet
spots on costa, below cell, and above vein 1; a medial series of seven black
points, the one in cell displaced outwards, and the pairs below costa and cell
often conjoined, and followed by scarlet spots on costa and above veins 2 and 1,
then by another series of seven black spots, two being displaced outwards on
discocellulars, incurved below cell, followed by scarlet spots on costa and
above veins 3 and 1, then by black spots above veins 3, 4, 5, 6, the two lower
further from base; a postmedial series of ten black spots bent outwards below
vein 6, then oblique; a subterminal series of scarlet spots conjoined in places
and bent outwards below costa; two obliquely-placed black spots from costa
before apex, and a terminal series; cilia chequered black and white, except
towards tornus. Hind wing white, usually with one or two black spots on
discocellulars; two black spots on medial part of costa; an apical black-brown
patch with rather irregular inner edge, followed by conjoined spots on termen to
vein 1, developed at middle into a hamate patch. Underside of fore wing with
irregular postmedial black patch from costa to submedian fold; hind wing with
the apical patch broken up into spots.

Ab. 1. candida. Fore wing with the ground-colour pure white.

Ab. 2. lotrix. Fore wing with the crimson spots of medial area more developed
and conjoined.

Ab. 3. thyter. Fore wing with the black spots more or less obsolete.

Ab. 4. Fore wing with the black spots more developed and conjoined in places;
hind wing with broad irregular terminal black band with more or less developed
white spot on it at middle.--N. Hebrides, Solomon Is.

Ab. 5. Antennae of male minutely serrate.--Keeling and Christmas Is., N. Guinea,
Australia, and Pacific Groups.

Hab. Europe, Central, South, and East, Britain, France, Spain, Frey Coll.,
Italy, Zeller Coll., Malta, Greece (Merlin), 2 ♀, Turkey, Rhodes, Zeller Coll.;
Asia Minor; Armenia; Tangiers, Mogador (Leach), 1 ♂, 1 ♀; St. Vincent (J. J.
Walker), 1 ♀; W. Africa, Ashanti, 1 ♂, 2 ♀, Niger R., Onitsha, 2 ♀, Congo
(Curror), 3 ♀; Suakim (Carpenter), 1 ♀; Sokotra (Balfour, Grant), 2 ♂, 4 ♀; Br.
E. Africa, Sabaki Valley (Gregory), 1 ♂, 3 ♀, Neugia (Crawshay), 1 ♂, 1 ♀,
Wadelai (Emin Pasha), 2 ♂; Br. C. Africa, Zomba (Johnston), 1 ♀, Mandala (de
Jersey), 1 ♀; Portuguese E. Africa (Imre), 1 ♀; Mashonaland, Salisbury
(Marshall), 1 ♀; Transvaal (Kirby), 1 ♀; Natal (Gooch, Gueinzius), 2 ♀; C.
Colony, 2 ♂, type candida; ? Bourbon; Seychelles, Mahé (Michaelis), 1 ♀; Arabia,
Lahej (Grant), 1 ♀, Aden (Yerbury), 1 ♂, 1 ♀, Muscat (Jayakar), 1 ♂; Japan,
Hakodate (Andrews), 1 ♀, Loo-choo (Pryer), 1 ♀; W. China, Washan (Pratt), 1 ♂,
Pu-tsu-fong, 1 ♀, Ni-tou, 1 ♀; Hong Kong (J. J. Walker), 1 ♂; Formosa (Hobson),
1 ♂, 2 ♀; Afghanistan, Candahar (Roberts), 1 ♀; Beloochistan, Quetta (Swinhoe),
1 ♀; Punjab, Chitral (Colomb), 1 ♂, 1 ♀, Cambellpur (Yerbury), 1 ♂, 1 ♀ type
thyter, Jubbulpur (Butler), 1 ♀; Nepal (Hardwicke), 1 ♂; Sind, Karachi
(Swinhoe), 1 ♂, 2 ♀; Bombay, Mirzapore, 1 ♂, Mhow (Swinhoe), 2 ♂, 4 ♀; Madras
(E. Y. Watson), 2 ♀; Nilgiris (Hampson), 1 ♂, 1 ♀; Ceylon (Lewis), 2 ♀; Burma,
Rangoon (Scott), 1 ♂, Up. Irrawaddy (Carpenter), 1 ♀; Philippines (Bowring), 1
♀; Java (Horsfield), 1 ♂, 3 ♀; Keeling Is. (Darwin), 2 ♂; Christmas I.
(Andrews), 1 ♂, 2 ♀; N. Guinea (Mathew), 1 ♂, 1 ♀; N. Hebrides (Mathew), 1 ♀;
Solomons (Woodford), 2 ♂; Queensland, Moreton B., 1 ♀, P. Essington, 1 ♂, Pt.
Darwin, 1 ♂, 3 ♀; N. S. Wales, Sydney (Raynor), 2 ♂, 1 ♀; Gilbert Is.
(Woodford), 2 ♂; Ellice Is. (Mathew), 3 ♂, 2 ♀; Marshall Is. (Mathew), 1 ♂, 2 ♀.
Exp. 40-46 millim.

Seitz, A. (1910). Utetheisa. In: Seitz, A. (ed.), The Macrolepidoptera of the
World, vol. 2, The Palaearctic Bombyces and Sphinges: pp. 73-74, pl. 13 k
(German edition: Die Gross-Schmetterlinge der Erde 2: 73-74).

U. pulchella L. (= pulchra Schiff.) (13 k). White forewing with black and red
spots, hindwing with irregular black distal margin and central lunule. Head and
prothorax orange. Europe, south of a line extending from Central Russia across
the Danube countries and South Germany to Central France, almost everywhere,
every year and regularly; but also met with singly and by chance far north of
this line, being found in England, North Germany to the Baltic, Heligoland,
North Russia and Siberia, here and there, often after intervals of years: at
Manchester, Frankfurt, Giessen, Hamburg, singly and usually near the railway,
probably carried there by the trains. Besides distributed southward throughout
South Europe and the whole of Africa, often enormously abundant (Algeria,
Egypt), throughout Central and Southern Asia to Japan, the Philippines,
Australia to the extreme south; in the west to the Atlantic islands (Madeira,
Canaries, Cape-Verde, etc.) and represented in America by closely allied forms.
In spite of this enormous area of distribution no geographical races have
developed. On the whole, the moths are smaller in the east and in the Southern
hemisphere, so that a name tenuella form. nov. (13 k) might be given to those
very small East-Asiatic forms which do not come under Hampson's pulchelloides.
On the other hand, certain aberrations occur in most localities, e. g. ab.
candida Butl., which has white forewing without any red and with very little
black, ab. pallida Spul. (13 k), which I caught near Giessen, has very pale
markings, ab. melampyga Spul. has the abdomen nearly all black, ab. fasciata
Spul. (13 k) has the black dots united to form lines, ab. semisignata Spul. (13
k) has the black dots confined to the outer marginal portion of the forewing,
being absent in the median and basal areas. In thyter Butl. they are almost
entirely absent. -- The larva, like the moth, is so very variable that a general
description is almost impossible. In localities where they occur in abundance,
as in East and North Africa, I often found quite differently coloured specimens
close together. As a rule, the larva is dark grey, lighter (lead grey or light
yellowish) dorsally, on the separate segments reddish yellow or yellowish brown
transverse bands. The hairs are moderately long, rather thin, black or white;
sometimes a white lateral line is present; head light reddish brown, with black
markings. The moths rest in the grass on field paths, at railway banks and in
dry beds of rivers, often in huge numbers. I found them most abundantly in Egypt
at the Nile Canal and in Algeria along certain railway lines. In Kabylia I drove
past mountain slopes where pulchella flew up before the approaching mail-coach
almost like clouds of snow-flakes. I found the moth common even in the hottest
summer far into the Lybian desert, as far as there were still traces of
vegetation. In East Asia, South China and Japan it was much more rare, and
usually in the mountains, on grassy heights. In Australia I caught it on large
plains, overgrown with Spinifex near Port Adelaide and Melbourne. On Teneriffe,
I found pulchella immediately at the landing place at Sta. Cruz, on Opuntia, and
they were numerous at the drilling-ground, etc. etc. It has been observed that
the moths congregate in huge swarms and travel over Gibraltar and South
Portugal.

Seitz, A. (1913). Errata and Addenda to Vol. 2. In: Seitz, A. (ed.), The
Macrolepidoptera of the World, vol. 2: p. 445.

P. 73. Utetheisa thyter is not considered as a form of pulchella by Rothschild
in Vol. 10. The black spots of the forewing are mostly absent. -- In semisignata
Spul. they are confined to the outer portion of the forewing. -- According to
Oberthür a new form must now be added in which the small black spots in the
median area of the forewing are absent.