PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



issued l^iN-d-Yi^l h **« 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Vol. 108 Wuhington : 1958 No. 3396 



A REDEFINITION OF THE BUTTERFLY GENERA TATOCHILA. 

 PHULIA, PIERCOLIAS, AND BALTIA, WITH DESCRIPTIONS 

 OF RELATED GENERA AND SUBGENERA 



By William D. Field 



The genera of butterflies treated in this paper are those labeled 

 by Klots (Ent. Americana, vol. 12, new ser., pi. 13, fig. 100, 1933) 

 as the "Tatocheilae-Phulia" branch of the family tree. These genera 

 probably will be considered as constituting a subtribe of the Pierini 

 when that tribe is subdivided. 



The history of re visionary work in the Rhopalocera shows that the 

 systematics of the group has progressed by three main stages. The 

 earliest workers studied the habitus (shape, color, and pattern) of 

 the wings almost exclusively. Before the middle of the 19th century 

 the veins of the wings were discovered to be of great value and were 

 thereafter used extensively in revisionary work. A few years later 

 the male genitalia were found to be of great systematic value and 

 slowly were used by more and more workers throughout a large 

 part of the Rhopalocera. 



Surprisingly, studies of the female genitalia were almost never 

 attempted, partly because the females were frequently harder to 

 dissect and because of an erroneous contention of early workers that 

 the female genitalia were of little taxonomic value. We know today 

 that this is not true, and it has been demonstrated numerous times 



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