190 RHOPALOCERA. 
PHYCIODES. 
Phyciodes, Hiibner, Verz. bek. Schm. p. 29 (1816). 
Melitea section ii., Doubleday, Gen. Diurn. Lep. p. 181. 
The species of this group of Nymphaline have received very various treatment at 
the hands of different authors. Doubleday, to whom a comparatively few species 
were known, places some of them as a second section of the genus Melitea, others 
under Eresia. Hewitson called all the species Eresia; and Kirby followed him, substi- 
tuting Hiibner’s name Phyciodes for the whole group. Strecker, in his ‘Catalogue of 
North-American Butterflies, on the other hand, includes them under Melitea, whilst 
Scudder splits them up into a number of different genera. 
The tangible points of separation are by no means obvious; and though many of 
the species may be arranged in groups, others do not lend themselves to such a 
division, but serve to blend the whole. 
We have examined the anal appendages in the males of a considerable number of 
species, with results which show that our present knowledge of these organs is not 
sufficiently advanced to enable us to use them in classification. On the whole, these 
parts in Phyciodes resemble those of Melita (M. cinzxia) rather than those of Argynnis 
(A. selene), inasmuch as the tegumen is, as a rule, somewhat atrophied and devoid of 
the hook present in Argynnis. But, as usual, much variation is present in different 
species, the harpagones being considerably reduced in P. drymea and short in P. liriope, 
whilst P. Jewcodesma has the tegumen more developed, thus resembling some species 
of Argynnis. 
The character by which Phyciodes can be best distinguished from Melitea is the 
terminal joint of the palpi, which in the former genus is much more attenuated than 
in the latter. The tibia of the middle and hind legs of Phyciodes are like those of 
Melitwa, the outer surface being smooth and not spiny as in Argynnis. The neuration, 
too, is essentially that of Melitwa, the first subcostal branch of the primaries being 
thrown off before the end of the cell, and the second after it. The antenne have 
33 joints, the terminal 12 forming an abrupt club. The front legs of the male are 
slightly hairy, the coxa stout, femur-+ trochanter >2 coxa, tibia=femur, tarsus short 
(single-jointed) = tibia. 
So far as the Mexican and Central-American species are concerned, the division of 
the species into those which have a simply rounded outer margin to the primaries and 
those in which this margin is sinuated and which possess a distinct prominence near 
the anal angle, seems to a great extent a natural one. This, at least, is true so far, as 
the former section includes all the species of the P. tharos group, a more northern 
type whose range does not extend beyond the highlands of Guatemala. The species 
with the notched wing are of a southern type, the northern extension of which reaches 
Texas, where P. teranus occurs. The group represented by P. fragilis and P. nigrella, 
