EUM^US. 5 



carefully examining his system, we do not see our way to arrange our American 

 species on the same plan. To divide Thecla into genera chiefly upon neuration could 

 hardly give a satisfactory result ; moreover, by our process of dissection, which we have 

 also applied to a large number of Old- World genera, we notice characters in them which 

 have not yet been taken into account, and which must influence considerably any future 

 exhaustive re-arrangement of the family. To attempt such an arrangement is evidently 

 beyond the scope of a faunistic work like the present ; in the meantime we put forward 

 such points that are illustrated by the species of our fauna as we trust will be of 

 service in constructing a complete system. Mr. Distant has been bringing forward 

 materials, we have been doing the same, all of which we trust will form part of the 

 building to be erected hereafter. 



I. Subcostal nervure of the primaries with two branches. 



A. Front legs of the male with a single-jointed tarsus and no claws. 



a. Secondaries rounded, the anal angle not projecting. 



EU1VLEUS. 



Eumceus, Hubner, Verz. bek. Schmett. p. 67 (1816) ; Westw. Gen. Diurn. Lep. p. 469 ; Scudder, 

 Mem. Bost. Soc. N. H. ii. p. 413. 



The most recent contribution to our knowledge of this genus is given by Mr. Scudder 

 in his paper on the structure and transformations of Eumceus atala, where he enters 

 very fully on the systematic position of the geuus, and its treatment in this respect by 

 previous writers. The conclusion he arrives at, largely from an examination of the 

 larval stages, is that there should be a family Eumseidse, and that it should stand 

 between the Erycinidse and Lycsenidee. So far as regards the larval stages of this and 

 other Lyceenidse, we have no material to follow him ; but we may remark that our 

 knowledge at present of the early stages of these insects is so exceedingly small 

 compared with their numbers, that though accurate descriptions are very desirable, the 

 time has hardly come to test their value as to classification. 



We have no doubt ourselves that Eumceus belongs strictly to the Lycsenidse. The 

 structure of the fore legs of the male at once determines this point ; the fusion of the 

 tarsal joints into a single cylindrical joint and the position of the spines thereon, 

 together with the trochanter joining the coxa at the extremity of the latter, are, we 

 think, conclusive on this point ; nay, further, so closely is Eumceus connected with Thecla 

 in all essential points of structure that we acknowledge that we have not satisfactorily 

 produced characters whereby the two may be sharply defined. That Eumceus is a 

 natural genus we have no manner of doubt, and it is due rather to the extreme diversity 

 prevailing in Thecla that salient points of distinction seem to fail us. 



We recognize but three species of this genus, though several others have been 



