78 [April, 



able by inj Table of Generic Characters* alone, but as to which, 

 notwithstanding, a few additional remarks may be of service to 

 beginners. 



Mesoneuea, Htg. 

 Our only species is opaca, F. (= Dineura vernn, C.). This insect, 

 when once known, is easily recognised. It is fairly large for a 

 Blennocampid, about 6 — 7 inm. long ; black, with dull reddish-orange 

 markings of variable extent — usually the pronotum, the side lobes of 

 the mesonotum, the scutellum, a mark on the pleurae, and more or 

 less of at least the ventral surface of the abdomen, are of the latter 

 colour. The neuratiou is peculiar in several ways. In the fore-wing 

 the nerve dividing the radial cell is nearly or quite interstitial with 

 the second cubital n., and that again with the second medial (or 

 " recurrent ") n., so that the three foroi roughly a single nerve at 

 right angles to the axis of the wing. Also the discoidal or basal n. 

 strikes the subcosta not (as is usual in the Blennocampids) at or near 

 the origin of the cubitus, but far before it. Again, whereas most of 

 the tribe have at most one " closed cellule " (medial) in the hind-wing, 

 and many have none at all, Mesoneura has two (cubital and medial). 

 These latter characters are among those which have led authors since 

 Hartig to treat the insect as a Nematid. But they belong also to the 

 HopJocampides ; and the position of the eyes (almost touching the 

 mandibles), and the form of the mandibles, associate our species much 

 better with that group than with the Nematides. On the whole, 

 therefore, Kouow considers it to be an aberrant member of the 

 Blennocampid tribe, linking the latter more or less to Roplocampa,-\ 

 and through that to Selandria, &c., with which we shall deal later. 



Phtmatoceeos, Dhb. 

 Konow has changed the last syllabic of Dahlbom's generic name 

 from -a to -os. The genus is very distinct, though containing only 

 one species — the well-known aterrima, Klug. Alone of all Blenno- 

 campids this insect has the 3rd antennal joint distinctly shorter than 

 the 4th, the antennae are long, filiform, and ciliated— very unlike those 

 of any other member of the tribe. It is about the largest of the 

 Blennocampides (9 mm. long or so), deep black and shining, with 



* See Ent. Mo. Mag., August, 1903, I. c. 

 t 111 p. 187 of hi.s vol. iv Mr. Cameron gives what I think is a mistaken account of Konow's 

 reasons for removing Mesoneura from the Nemotides to the Blennocampides. The position of the 

 tr. basal iiarvure in its front-wing would rather have induced him to leave it in the former 

 tribe, of which, and not of the lilennocanipides, thi.s neuiation is characteristic. But finding 

 that a .similar neuratiou occurred in the yyo^j/oatmpic/ej, and that in other points of structure 

 il/eso/icitra seemed nearer to these tli.aii to the NtnuU'uUs, Konow felt himself justified in allowing 

 the latter consideration to outweigh the former, and removed Mesoneura into the Blennocampides, 

 not because of but in spite of its neuratiou. 



