CERTAIN BUTTERFLY GENERA — FIELD 105 



Two of the genera treated below are each divided into two subgenera 

 upon characters that certainly would be considered of generic instead 

 of subgeneric value if it were not for the fact that they could not be 

 separated upon habitus. It did not seem logical, for example, to 

 treat the subgenera Phulia and Infraphulia as separate genera — • 

 in spite of the several really important differences in male and female 

 genitalia and venation — simply because they look so very much alike. 

 Thus, habitus was regarded as being of great importance and genera 

 were not divided unless differences in habitus supported the other 

 reasons for such division. On the other hand, habitus differences 

 alone were not regarded as sufficient to divide genera. Thus, the 

 two species of Baltia, although differing greatly in habitus (one species 

 resembling Piercolias and the other somewhat resembling Phulia) 

 were retained together in the genus Baltia because other characters 

 did not support a division based upon habitus differences either on the 

 generic or the subgeneric level. 



The species here transferred to Pitrcolias {Picrphulia) were taken 

 from Phulia, where they have hitherto been placed, because of the 

 differences in the uncus of the male, in the inner genital plates of the 

 female, and in other characters which were supported by habitus 

 differences. On the other hand they could not be regarded as typical 

 Piercolias (except on habitus characters) because of some differences 

 in these same structures and in venation. 



All of the genera treated here are Neotropical in distribution except 

 Baltia, which occurs only in the Himalaj^as of central Asia. Klots 

 (loc. cit., p. 219) says "whether there is a real relationship between 

 Baltia and Phulia or whether the resemblances are merely to be 

 regarded as similar developments in the same type of environment is 

 a matter of doubt." Klots had the false notion that Phulia and 

 Baltia both lacked pulvilli and paronychia. These structures are 

 present in all of the genera here treated but are sometimes so greatly 

 reduced in Phulia, Peircolias, and Baltia that they cannot be seen 

 without dissection and great magnification. Baltia, however, in 

 the majority of its characters, certainly seems more closely related to 

 these Neotropical genera with which Klots has placed it than to any 

 of the Old World genera. 



Of the Neotropical genera, Theochila is found in the southern 

 nontropical parts of Brazil and eastern Ai-gentina; Tatochila in 

 Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, and south to Tierra del 

 Fuego; Hypsochila in the Andes of Bolivia and Peru, south to the 

 high elevations in central Chile and west-central Ai-gentina, and south 

 from there to Tierra del Fuego; Phulia in the high Andes of Bolivia 

 and Peru, south to the high elevations in central Chile and west- 

 central Argentina, and Piercolias in the Andes of Bolivia and Peru, 

 south into northern Chile. 



