Tilt: CANADIAN ENTOMOLOUIST. 69 



chrysalids o\' Are(y/ati/s, Et/ryfris nnd SosyMi/s lia\c the same general shape 

 oi S. A/oJyc : stem and slioit. with the anterior end truncated, ahnost cut 

 squarely off beyond mesonotum. lUit Geniina is long, slender, with the 

 head case i)rodnced. and ending in two long conical processes like the 

 horns of the larwx. Probably Canthus will be found to have a chrysalis 

 of this description. Debis Port/a/idia, in all its stages, comes very near 

 Neonympha. In the first two stages it most reseml)]es Canthin ; after 

 that, Canthus and Gcmina. Its chrysalis is of the Satyrid type, very like 

 that of Alopc. The egg differs from all the species somewhat. It is of 

 the same general shape, however, but has a rounded [)rottiberance on the 

 under side, and a smooth surface. Judging by the preparatory stages of 

 PortlatuUa, Debis ought to stand next Neonympha in the catalogues, 

 instead of being separated from it by several genera, as Ccenonympha and 

 Erebia. The preparatory stages of these two genera I only know from 

 European authors, but species of both have barrel-shaped, ribbed eggs. 

 and caterpillars with roimd heads, and no processes on vertices. These 

 agree, therefore, with Satyrus, and the genera should stand near Satyrus. 

 The more I see of the preparatory stages of butterflies, the more I am 

 impressed that no system of arrangement is ;i true one which does not 

 consider these. Each untpiestionably natural genus in the American 

 diurnals is as distinct in its several stages as in the imago, so far as these 

 are known. Between such genera fall some others less clearly defined, 

 with the stages spoken of lying midway between also ; as Euptoieta, which 

 has the egg of an Argynnis, but the chrysalis of a Melitosa, while the larva 

 is neither one or the other, though resembling Argynnis somewhat. 



THE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES OF NEMISTRINID.f:. 



BV S. W. wn.LISTON, XKW HAVEN, CONN. 



The familv of NemistrinidcX comprises throughout the world one hun- 

 dred and ten described species, six or seven of which are from Southern 

 Europe and three from North America ; the remainder nearly equally 

 distributed in Asia, Africa, Australia and South America. In their habits, 

 so far as known, the species approach the Bombylidre most closely, as also 

 do many in their general appearance. Structurally they are of interest to 



