NICONIADES. 525 



Hesperia cydia, Hew. ; in addition to these, we place here Proteides cceso, P. m,erenda, 

 and P. viridiceps, Mab. All are Tropical-American forms, four of them occurring 

 within our limits. In the typical species the hind wings are strongly lobate, approaching 

 Eudamus in this respect ; but in N. cydia and N. merenda this is less marked. The 

 males in this genus have a brand on the primaries formed of three short longitudinal 

 streaks placed one below the other. 



The antennae are rather long, about reaching the end of the cell, with an elongate 

 club, terminating in a long slender crook. The palpi have their second joint densely 

 scaled, the third short and bluntly conical. The primaries are pointed at the tip ; the 

 cell is considerably less than two-thirds the length of the costa ; the discocellulars are 

 oblique, the upper one a little more than twice the length of the lower ; the lower 

 radial is strongly depressed at the base ; the first branch arises some distance before the 

 middle of the median nervure, the second considerably before the lower angle of the cell. 

 The secondaries are more or less lobed at the anal angle (strongly so in jV. xanthaphes), 

 extending considerably beyond the apex of the abdomen ; the discocellulars are faint. 

 The body is robust. The middle and hind tibiae are spined ; the latter have two pairs 

 of spurs. The primaries in the male have a brand formed of three portions: (1) a 

 triangular piece filling the angle between the base of the second median segment and 

 the first median branch ; (2) a longitudinal streak immediately below this ; (3) a shorter 

 longitudinal streak along the upper edge of the submedian nervure. 



a. Secondaries with a long white band beneath. 



1. Niconiades xanthaphes. (Tab. XCVIL figg. 21, 22, <? .) 



Niconiades xanthaphes, Hiibn. Samml. exot. Schmett. t. 147 ( <J ? ) ] ; Wats. P. Z. S. 1893, 

 p. 120 \ 



Alis fuscis, ad basin, cum capite et corpore supra, nitente viridibus, stigmate grisescente ; anticis maculis 

 quatuor, una bifida in cellula, tribus in linea obliqua infra et ultra cellulam, punctisque duobus aut tribus 

 in linea transversa, albo-hyalinis ; posticis macula geminata ultra cellulam coloris ejusdem : subtus 

 dilutioribus, anticis costa3 dimidio basali ochraceo, litura supra venam submedianam alba ; posticis fascia 

 angusta irregulari a margine costali angulum analem versus transeuute ; palpis et corpore subtus sordide 

 griseis. 



2 mari similis. 



Hab. Mexico, Atoyac (H.H.Smith); Honduras, San Pedro (Whitely); Panama, 

 Bugaba, Tole (Champion). — South America to Brazil. 



Of this widely distributed Tropical-American insect we have five examples from our 

 region. It is one of a small group of species recognizable by the long white band on 

 the underside of the secondaries. We figure the fore wing of a male, to show the 

 position of the brand (Tab. XCVIL fig. 21), also the genitalia, for which see Tab. XCVIL 

 fig. 22. 



biol. centr.-amer., Rhopal., Vol. II., October 1900. 3 y 



