1888.] PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 185 



NOTES ON CYDOSIA AND CERATHOSIA. 

 BY JOHN B. SMITH. 



Cydosia was first named by Westwood, without any very elaborate 

 characterization, in the thirty-seventh volume of the Naturalist's 

 Library, with Tinea nobUitella as sole species and therefore type. 



In tbe second volume of the catalogue Lep. Heterocera in the British 

 Museum, p. 524, Walker describes the genus as follows: "Has some 

 resemblance to Cram bus and other pyralites. Body rather stout, not 

 long; palpi short, pubescent; third joint conical, less than half of the 

 second ; proboscis short ; antennae slender, testaceous, bare, rather more 

 than half the length of the body; abdomen extending a little beyond 

 the hind wings; legs rather stout; hind tibia? with four long spurs; 

 wings narrow, rather long; fore wings hardly convex in front, very 

 slightly oblique along the apical border; hind angle slightly rounded; 

 first, second, and third inferior veins very near together at the base; 

 fourth very remote from them." 



C. nobUitella Cram, is still the sole species and is credited to the West 

 Indies and various South American points. It forms a part of the 

 assemblage elassed by Walker as Lithosiidw. 



In 1868 Messrs. Grote and Bobinson describe Cydosia aurivitta from 

 Texas, and distinguish it from what they identify as nobUitella by the 

 lack of determinate white spots, the golden bands alone remaining. 

 The genus is here placed in the family Zygaenidce, subfamily Zygaeninic. 

 Without giving any new characters they refer to its systematic position 

 thus: "The present genus we regard as related to Apistosia Hiibner, 

 and forming one of a low group of zygaenid genera with simple an- 

 temne and elongate wings, which latter, when at rest, the imago folds 

 after the manner of Lithosia. This group is so laden with Lithosian 

 analogies as to render its critical study difficult. C. nobUitella and Oeta 

 compta mimic the Lithosian genus Utetheisa. Deiopeia aurea Fitch is 

 probably a species of Cydosia. * * * Their metallic colors aid our 

 conception of their true position." Messrs. Grote and Bobinson here 

 use the term "analogy" as Dr. Packard did in treating of Ctenucha, and 

 they regard all the Lithosian features as coming under it and not as 

 affinities. They fail, however, to give any zygaenid affinities save of 

 color and wing form. 



In view of subsequent developments it may be as well to note here 

 that Apistosia Hb. is placed by its author among the Lithosiidce, and 

 nobUitella is referred to the genus Crameria and placed directly after 

 Utetheisa, a point which has been overlooked, but which speaks well 

 for Hubner's shrewdness in associating allied forms. 



