78 JOHN B. SMITH. 



it to Acontia, and as it really resembles these species closely, it may 

 be left here for the present until a generic revision of the whole 

 group is made. The secondaries have 5 very weak, scarcely more 

 than a fold, from the cross-vein near the middle of cell, 3 and 4 

 together out of the median at the end of the cell. 



Acontia virgiiialiK Grote. 



1881. Grt., ("ail. Ent., xiii, 151, var. binocula. 

 1881, Grt., Papilio, i, 155, ? var. binocula. 



Head and t)iorax white ; abdomen with a faint yellowish tinge. Primarie.s 

 ci'eamy white, except for a yellow median shade hand and a yellow and .smoky 

 band curved from outer third of inner margin to the apex. The yellow median 

 band is at almost the middle of the wing, tends to become darker inferiorly and 

 forms the inner margin of the dusky shading. This fills the space to the t. p. 

 line, curving up to aud beyond the reniform, then extended as a more yellow 

 cloud to the gray apex. Above the reniform the costa is creamy, but tends to 

 yellow cloudings. At apex there is a gray shade, through which the pale s. t. 

 line becomes visible ; toward middle the s t. and terminal spaces become creamy, 

 with a variably deep yellow tinge. A series of very small black terminal dots. 

 Fringes whitish except at apex. Orbicular wanting. Eeniform round, leaden 

 gray, annulate with white. Secondaries white, with a smoky outer border, lost 

 before reaching the anal angle. Beneath, primaries smoky on disc, costal mar- 

 gin yellowish, fringes and inner margin white. Secondaries white. 



Expands 23-25 mm. = .92-1.00 inches. 



Hah. — Denver, Colorado; Arizona. 



Two males and two females. Except for a little difference in the 

 intensity of the yellow or gray shading there is no variation. The 

 gray tends to disappear, leaving the yellow dominant, and alto- 

 gether this is the palest species of its type. It was originally de- 

 scribed as a variety of binocula, but later in the same year Mr. 

 Grote suggested the question : " Is it a variety? ". From the mate- 

 rial at hand I think it is a good species, distinguished from binocula 

 as noted in the synoptic table and elsewhere. 



The secondaries have vein 5 very weak, from the cross-vein well 

 toward its middle. It is a typical 3-fid. The median forks into 3 

 and 4 well beyond the end of the cell. 



Acontia binocula Grote. 



1875, Grt., Can. Ent., vii, 224, Tarnche. 



1893, Smith, Bull. 44, U. S. Nat. Mus., 300, Acontia. 

 Head thorax and abdomen white, the latter often with a yellowish tinge. Pri- 

 maries white or creamy to a broad yellow or olivaceous median baud, which, 

 from the middle of the cell, forms the anterior border of a gray shade, which fills 

 all the space below the reniform to the s. t. line aud is continued beyond reniform 

 obliquely to the apex. Terminal space usually white shaded below the apical 

 region, but there is always a gray underlay which sometimes darkens it to the 



