ERYCINIDZ. 361 
Fam. ERYCINID. 
In studying the members of this family we have had occasion to make a large 
number of dissections, prepared from representatives of by far the greater part of the 
~ recognized genera; these preparations have all necessarily been made from dry speci- 
mens, and the process we have adopted has only enabled us to reserve the chitinous 
structures such as are not soluble in caustic potash. The parts we have been able to 
prepare satisfactorily are the wings, the antenne, the palpi, and the legs, as well as the 
secondary sexual organs of the male; those of the female, except as regards a very few 
points, have not given us any tangible materials for generalization. By a process, for 
the knowledge of which we are indebted to Mr. Wood-Mason, by which the colour of 
the scales of the wings and the hairs of the legs and body have been destroyed, we have 
been enabled to see the extent to which the discocellular nervules of the wings have 
become atrophied and the exact relative position of each nervule and branch, whilst the 
different parts of the legs and the number of the tarsal joints have been traced with a 
certainty not otherwise attainable. Our observations have led to the discovery of some 
characters not noted by previous writers. One of the most noteworthy is a peculiarity 
in the front legs of the males, where the trochanter is inserted at various distances from 
the end of the coxa, leaving a long projecting portion of the coxa beyond the trochanter 
joint. In the front leg of the female the relative position of the coxa and trochanter is 
normal. The tarsus of the front legs of the male in the family Erycinide is more or less 
atrophied as regards its joints, both as to their number and development, while those of 
the female are perfect, of the normal number of joints, the terminal joint bearing claws 
and the usual appendages. 
The next point of importance is the presence or absence in the secondaries of both sexes 
of what we have termed a basal nervure ; this nervure originates at the joint of the wing, 
and proceeds upwards outside the precostal lobe. It is fully developed, and very evident 
in by far the majority of American Erycinide ; it is either wholly absent or quite rudi- 
mentary in all the Old-World genera, and it is absent also in the N ew-World genera 
Eurygona, Methonella, Hades, and Helicopis. These four genera, with those of the 
Old World, form our first subfamily, characterized by the secondaries not having a basal 
nervure or only a rudimentary one. The remaining genera form our second subfamily, 
characterized by the presence of a well-developed basal nervure. The removal of the 
first four American genera named above enables us to divide the remaining genera into 
three sections, according as the subcostal nervure of the primaries has four, three, or two 
subcostal branches. The position of these branches with reference to the end of the 
cell enables us to subdivide the second section into three groups, in the first of which 
all the branches are emitted beyond the cell, in the second one is emitted before 
and two beyond the end of the cell, in the third two are emitted before the end of 
BIOL. CENTR.-AMER., Rhopal., Vol. L., December 1889. 3A 
