TAYGETIS. 95 
So far as 7. mermeria is concerned, we have no doubt of its generic distinctness. 
In the genital armature of the male of T. mermeria differences are observable when com- 
pared with the same organs in Euptychia, the lateral hooks of the tegumen being 
developed in a remarkable way, being long slender rods curved like fish-hooks. 
The palpi, too, of 7. mermeria have the terminal joint much shorter than in 7. vir- 
gilia ; and the front legs of the male are densely hairy. 
These points show that the whole group requires a very thorough examination, an 
undertaking beyond the scope of a faunistic work like the present. 
We take the genus as usually understood, and much as it stands in Mr. Butler’s 
‘ Catalogue of Satyride in the British Museum.’ The number of species it contains is 
difficult to estimate, so many of them being merely nominal ones. Mr. Butler in his 
Catalogue admitted twenty-seven; and he subsequently added several more in his 
‘Lepidoptera Exotica.’ In our own collection we admit about twenty, of which some 
are of doubtful value. Within the limits of Central America we find nine species, of 
which only three reach Southern Mexico, the genus being strictly a tropical one. 
a. Large species; median transverse band of secondaries straight or in a simple curve. 
1. Taygetis mermeria. 
Papilio mermeria, Cram. Pap. Ex. i. t. 96. f. B’; iv. t. 289. £. E, F2. 
Taygetis mermeria, Hiibn. Samml. ex. Schm. ii. t. 843; Butl. Cat. Sat. B. M. p-7*; Butl. & Druce, 
P.Z.S8. 1874, p. 835°. 
Faunus tenebrosus, Blanch. d’Orb. Voy. Am. Mérid. vi. p. 222, t. 32. £. 1, 28, 
Taygetis excavata, Butl. Cat. Sat. B. M. p. 8, t. 1. f. 17. 
Alis olivaceo-fuscis, anticarum apicibus valde productis, posticarum margine externo ad angulum analem plus 
minusve dentato: subtus alis pupurascenti-fuscis aut ferrugineis, ad basin pallidioribus et undique fusco- 
nigro irroratis; anticis ocellis quinque submarginalibus ornatis ; posticis linea recta transversa intus 
nigricante, extus dilutiore notatis ultra eam serie sex ocellorum linea fere recta positorum et linea sub- 
marginali persinuosa ornatis. 
Hab. Muxico (Sallé) ; Guatemana, Retalhuleu (7. D. G. & O.8.), Volcan del Zum- 
bador (Champion); Honpuras (Mus. Brit.1); Nicaracua‘ (Belt, Janson); Costa Rica 
(Endres, Van Patten®, Rogers).—Soutn AMERICA, to Brazil and Bolivia. 
Though considerable diversity exists in the shape and coloration of the wings of 
specimens from different points in the wide range of this species, we are unable to group 
them in any definite manner so that each race should bear a separate name. The chief 
points of variation consist in the shape of the apex of the primaries, which in some 
specimens is produced to a sharp point; the anal angle of the secondaries in others is 
more deeply indentated, and these wings rather more produced and less rounded. The 
colour of the underside presents the greatest diversity; and the only constant character 
to be traced is the straightness of the transverse median band of the secondaries—a point 
of distinction between 7. mermeria and T. armillata. 
