328 XOVI'TATBS ZOOLOGICAE XXII. IHIS. 



38. Somatina ctenophora sj). nov. 



(J, 37 mm. Face white, uarrowlj purple-brown above. Palpus white, dark 

 pnr])le-brown on outer side. Vertex and base of antenna white ; antenna of d 

 bipectinate except apically, the pectinations increasing gradually in length to about 

 the eighth joint, longish (over three times diameter of shaft) from here to about the 

 twentieth, then decreasing; each surmounted by fascicle of cilia. Thorax and 

 abdomen white. Legs white, foreleg in part infnscated ; hindleg in J' rather slender, 

 without spurs, tarsus as long as tibia. 



Forewing more elongate than in typical Somatina, termen strongly oblique, 

 smooth, little curved ; glossy cream-white, not very opatpie ; lines very feeble, 

 rather broad, greyish ; antemediau not or scarcely discernible; median far beyond 

 cell, slightly lunulate, dentate outwards on the veins, somewhat curved anteriorly ; 

 postmedian more deeply lunulate ; subtermiuals both present, lunulate in the 

 reverse direction to the other lines, the proximal inclined to be thickened into 

 interneural spots ; terminal line complete, but fine and inconspicuous ; fringe white. 

 Hindwing with termen smooth, scarcely convex, except anteriorly, tornns pro- 

 nounced ; coloured and marked as forewing, the median line scarcely aj)preciably 

 lunulate. 



Underside white, unmarked. 



Nairobi (T. J. Anderson), April 20, 1911 (typej, April 25, 1011 ; both in coll. 

 Brit. Mus. 



A ¥ from the Johannesburg district (E. A. Bacot), which has for many years 

 stood unnamed in my collection, certainly belongs here. Larger (43 mm.), abdomen 

 very robust, face inappreciably browned above. 



This species and the following, together with stibolridata Warr. (iVot>. Zool. 

 viii. 10), should form a new section of Somatina, sharing with the section Somati- 

 ?i0jjsis Warr. the non-aborted c? hindleg, with section (? genus) Qrthoserica the 

 pectinate S antenna ; forewing with R- arising well before middle of discocellulars, 

 DC incurved, hindwing with SC separate, aspect nearly of Problepsis. The 

 African species show various intergrades between Somatina (areole double) and 

 Problepsis (areole single) in a way that is very interesting to the evolutionist but 

 very troublesome to the systematist. Thus figurata Warr. {Nov. Zool. iv. 61) — 

 which, except in the <J antenna, perhaps comes rather near ctenophora — and vestalis 

 Btlr. {Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (4) xvi. 419), both have the distal areole showing 

 various grades of reduction and sometimes vanishing, occasionally not even 

 symmetrical in this respect on both wings of a single specimen. I believe, however, 

 that the genus Somatina remains tenable in that SO"' in these cases arises from the 

 areole, or at latest close beyond its apex, while in Problepsis it is long-stalked 

 with SC"''. S. omicrata F. ( = cana Hmpsn.), the Indian ally oi vestalis, may show 

 similar variation ; compare Hampson, Faun. Iml. Moths iii. 463 (with which my 

 experience agrees) with Turner, Proc. Linn. Soc. New S. Wales, xxxii. 675. 



39. Somatina centrophora sp. nov. 



(J, 35 mm. Near the preceding, but the forewing slightly narrower, hindwing 

 slightly more convex from SC to W, 3 hindtibia with a pair of terminal spurs, the 

 venation and wing-markings showing more manifest signs of the transition towards 

 Problepsis. On the right forewing of the unique example a minute distal areole 

 persists and SC^ is barely stalked beyond it ; on the left the distal areole has 



