no. i. BOMBYCINE MOTHS OF NORTH AMERICA— PACKARD. 165 



0. venusta Roth, and Jord., 1907, and 0. inversa Rothschild, 1896, are from New Guinea. Good 

 figures of three species are given in Nov. Zool., 1908, Plate IX. Jordan (1908) calls the genus 

 Opodiphthera, but Kirby writes Opodiphtera.] 



TAGOROPSIS Felder. 



Drexta Walker, Cat. Lep. Het. Brit. Mus., XXXII, p. 373, 1865. 

 Tagoropsis Felder, Reise d. Novara, Lep., IV, Taf. 88, fig. 2, 1874. 

 Tagoropsis Kirby, Syn. Cat. Lep. Het., I, p. 755, 1892. 

 Tagoropsis Sonthonnax, Annales Lab. d'Etudes de la Soie, X, p. 69, 1900. 



Imago. — <? . Head moderately prominent ; front moderately wide, not much wider than 

 one of the eyes; vestiture moderately long, though not shaggy, the hairs in front nearly con- 

 cealing the small short feeble drooping palpi, which can only with difficulty be detected with 

 a lens. Antennae not very long, subplumose, with about 36 joints, those toward the base 

 shorter than broad, those toward the end about twice as long as thick; but a single pair of 

 pectinations to a joint; they are very long and slender, overlapping each other at the end; 

 the distal pectinations are atrophied and represented by minute scales. Body moderately 

 stout; the abdomen only reaching to the outer third of the hind wings. 



Fore wings decidedly falcate ; costa straight on the basal two-thirds, toward the apex much 

 curved; the apex decidedly produced, though somewhat blunt at the tip; outer edge equal to 

 the inner in length, well excavated behind the apex; inner angle rounded. 



Hind wings with the costa not very full; apex not much rounded; the outer edge moder- 

 ately full, the inner angle squarish. 



Venation: Near that of Copaxa and Syntherata (S. insignis), but nearest to Caligula; from 

 the latter it differs; three branches of vein II are present and much as in C. helena, the origins 

 of veins III 2 and III 3 and of the anterior discal veins are all at the same point, vein III 3 showing 

 no signs of detachment from its stalk, as it does in Caligula and Syntherata; the discocellulars 

 form a slightly incurved line; in the hind wings vein III 2 is much less detached and the dis- 

 cocellulars form a decided oblique line, while the origin of II is nearer the middle of the discal 

 cell than in Syntherata. 



Legs rather large and long, the tarsi well developed. Coloration: Ground shade bright 

 lemon-yellow, with reddish brown fine lines and a very small oval ocellus on the fore wings, 

 with a small narrow clear central space. Hind wings with no ocellus. The same markings on 

 the under side of wings of both pairs. This genus by its venation comes nearest to Caligula 

 japonica and especially C. helena, and is also closely allied to Copaxa and Syntherata. 



Geographical distribution. — The species spread over western and especially southern Africa, 



and thence to Delagoa Bay, Victoria Nyanza, and four species are reported as inhabiting 



Madagascar. 



TAGOROPSIS FLAVTNATA (Walker). 



Plate XXX, fig. 4; XLI, fig. 2. 



Drexta Jtavinata Walker, Cat. Lep. Het. Brit. Mus., XXXII, p. 373, 1865. 



Tagoropsis natalensis Felder, Reise d. Novara, Zool., Th. Bd. II, Abth. 2, Tab. LXXXVIII, fig. 2, 1874. 

 Tagoropsis natalensis Maassen and Weymer, Beitrage Schmett., IV, figs. 57 3 , 58 9 , 1881. 

 Tagoropsis fiavinata Kirby, Syn. Cat. Lep. Het., I, p. 755, 1892. 

 [This is the type of the genus, according to Kirby.] 



Imago. — One <? , one 9 . Body and wings above and beneath clear lemon-yellow, the 

 female more ochreous. Head, front of collar and breast reddish pink, legs pink and yellow, 

 the longer hairs yellow. 



Fore wings with an irregular zigzag basal brown line, broken and spreading widely on the 

 costa, and dislocated on the median vein. Costa reddish brown to base of the wing. An 

 eight-scalloped faint narrow extradiscal line nearly touching the ocellus ; a third narrow line passing 

 straight from the outer third of the inner edge to about the outer seventh of the costal edge, 

 being situated about halfway between the ocellus and outer edge. Ocellus small, oval, forming 

 a simple brown ring with a few scattered white scales inclosing a minute oval-lanceolate clear 

 or (on the left wing) white spot. 



