189.5.] 91 



NOTES ON CEETAIN ASIATIC nESPERIIDM. 

 BY J. EDWARDS, F.E.S. 



I. — The Genera Captla and Pfsola, 

 Moore described these genera on page 785 of the Proceedings o£ 

 the Zoological Society of London for the year 1865, placing one 

 species in each genus, and purporting to describe both sexes in each 

 case. In the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society for 

 1892, pages 317-350, de Niceville discusses these genera at some 

 length, and asserts that what Moore describes as the female of Capila 

 Jayadeva is the true male of Pisola Zennara, and what he (Moore) 

 gives as the male of Pisola Zennara is the true female of Capila 

 Jayadeva. If we adopt this view, and judging from specimens of 

 both species, and the fact that it is now known that several species 

 oE these large Hesperiids have dissimilar, white banded females, there 

 is no reason for doubting its correctness, we have two genera 

 founded on the opposite sexes of the same species, and strictly 

 speaking both names should accordingly fall. I would, however, pro- 

 pose the following as a reasonable mode of dealing with the matter. 

 The two genera being synchronous in publication, and there being no 

 necessity for more than one generic name to include the constituents 

 of both, let the name Capila, which occurs first in order, be retained 

 for that purpose. I would retain the name Jayadeva for the insect 

 described by Moore under that name and its real female, which is the 

 same as Moore's Pisola Zennara, male ; and I would apply the name 

 Moorei to the insect which Moore described as the female of his 

 Jayadeva and its recil female, which latter is the same as Moore's Pisola 

 Zennara, female. The nomenclature would therefore stand thus: — 



Capila, Moore. 



1. C. Jayadeva, Moore. 



? ^ Pisola Zennara, Moore ((?). 



2. C. Moorei, nam. nov. 



^ = Cajnla Jayadeva, Moore ( ? ). 

 9 = Pisola Zennara, Moore ( ? ). 



Watson, in his "Proposed Classification of the Ilesperiidce" (P. 

 Z. S., 1893, pp. 3-132), redefines the genus Pisola, Moore, taking as 

 his type the only species placed in the genus by its author, namely, 

 Zennara ; and he goes on to say that the male of Pisola Zennara has no 

 long tuft of hairs on the hind tibia?. But in a paper on the Asiatic 

 Genera of Hesperiidcc, of which he has kindly sent me the proof, and 

 which will shortly appear in Journal of the Bombay Natural History 



