122 Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. 



sessed by most of its relatives; the hind wings being particularly ample. 

 The most common color forms of the species have these broad wings milky 

 white with the head and thorax shaded from ivory color to reddish brown. 

 The fore wings are delicately marked with smoky to black, and orange to 

 scarlet markings. In the dim spaces between the luxuriant dark green 

 plants of a sphagnum bog, where I first realized the beauty of these little 

 insects, their milky coloring seemed almost to glow, as they leaped from 

 plant to plant in quick yet sailing flights. Then I wished I might have the 

 privilege of naming so beautiful a creature in a way to commemorate its 

 alabastrine color and its marbled tracery. After considerable study of the 

 group, the need of a new generic name becoming apparent, I have made one 

 from the name of a mountain, which among the ancient Greeks was famed 

 for its wild flowers, its bees and honey, and its beautiful marble. 



Scutellum and adjacent parts seen from side. Fig. 1. — Hymetta trifasciata ; Fig. 2. — 

 Erythroneura obliqua. 



Hymetta trifasciata is a common species and has been recorded from ter- 

 ritory having the following States as its limits: New York, Tennessee, 

 Mississippi, Wisconsin and Kansas, a range here extended to Texas. 



About Washington, D. C. the species has been taken on grape and hick- 

 ory but is found in largest numbers and is most easily collected when hiber- 

 nating among fallen leaves. 



Markings of Hymetta trifasciata besides the crossbands described below 

 which are always or nearly always present are the following: the jet black 

 tip of the elevated scutellum ; a black dot on corium near a point on claval 

 suture about two-fifths of its length from apex of clavus; and dots and 

 flecks over clavus and adjacent parts of corium varying through dusky to 

 orange and scarlet. 



Key to the Color Varieties. 



This key is based largely on the character of the colored crossbands of the 

 tegmen. In the full color pattern these are three in number: (1), a broad 

 interrupted dusky band (darkest at edges) across middle of clavus and on 

 corium to front end of costal plaque; (2) a narrower interrupted band just 

 in front of cross-veins, which often is bordered behind by a red line running 

 to costal margin; and (3) a narrow dusky stripe, obliquely across apical 

 cells to exterior apical angle of tegmen. 



