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CALLIMORPHA HELCITA.
PLATE XXIII. Fig. 2.
We had occasion in a former volume to notice some of the British species of this beautiful group, and we now describe two examples of exotic forms. The genus is very closely allied to the Arctiidæ, through Hypercompa, and may be briefly defined as having the antennæ, in the male, subciliated; palpi three-jointed, the second and third joints nearly equal; the fore wings subtrigonate, and not showing any tendency to become truncate.
The species here figured was at first placed among the Papiliones by Linnæus in his Syst. Nat. (2. 763. 94), and it must be admitted to bear a great resemblance to some of the diurnal tribes, particularly certain kinds of Danais, in the nature and brilliancy of its colours. The expansion of the wings is about three inches and a half: head, thorax, and abdomen deep black, the two last marked with three rows of white spots, one on the back and another on each side. The upper wings are of a beautiful deep red, the whole of the exterior part from a little beyond the middle black, with a curved row of pretty large
