PIEUIN.U':: THE GENUS XANTHIBIA. 1061 



XANTHIDIA BOISDUVAL AND LECONTE. 



Xaiithidia BoisJ-LeC, Li^|). Am^r. sept., 48 Abaeis (pars) Hiilni., Verz. lick, srlniiett., 97 



(182!K!0). (1816). 



Terias (pars) Auetoruiu. Type. — Papilio nicippe Cram. 



My idle fancies stray, 

 Even as these noiseless yellow butterflies. 

 That poiso on grass or flower, and drift away 

 Like wavering leaves in their perpetual play. 



.'^TORY. — Under the Ilexes. 



Imago (56: 4). Head r.ather large, covered with very short, scale-like, erect hairs, 

 much longer and somewhat triangularly tufted on the front. Front rather largely and 

 regularly tumid, but to a greater degree below, falling off rather rapidly at the sides, 

 flattened slightly down the whole middle of the front, but surpassing considerably 

 the front of the eyes; above with a slight sulcation in front of each antenna, and 

 with the sides of that portion lying between the antennae sloping considerably to 

 either side, forming a median ridge, somewhat higher than broad, about three-quar- 

 ters as broad as the front view of the eyes, the sides diverging a little upward ; upper 

 margin sloping a little toward the antennae ; lower margin very broadly rounded. 

 Vertex largely and rather uniformly tumid, rising considerably above the level of the 

 eyes, the scarcely projecting anterior angles rather largely depressed, but a little 

 raised at the extremity, the front border elevated, squarely cut at the sides, a little 

 rounded off in the middle. Eyes rather large, not very full, naked. Antennae in- 

 serted very slightly in advance of the middle of the summit, in distinct, not very 

 deep pits, open toward the eyes, separated from each other by the width of one of 

 the pits; considerably shorter than the abdomen, composed of thirty-six joints of 

 which ten or eleven form a strongly compressed club (87 :8), four times as broad as 

 the stalk, about four times as long as broad, obovate, increasing rather rapidly and 

 regularly in size up to the antepenultimate joint, the tip strongly rounded ; down the 

 middle of the under surface, occupying the whole breadth of each joint is a row of 

 circular shallow depressions. Palpi short, stout, much compressed, considerably 

 longer than the eye, the last joint minute, scarcely more than a third as long as 

 the middle, which is itself less than half as long as the basal joint ; all furnished 

 abundantly with large scales which project considerably beyond the margin of the 

 under surface, all strongly compressed in a vertical plane. 



Prothoracic lobes minute, semioval, half as broad again as long or high, tumid. 

 Patagia rather small, broad and long, a little arched, flat, not more than three times 

 as long as broad, well rounded at the base, both borders nearly straight; tapering 

 rather regularly and very gradually, it is scarcely less than half as broad at tip as at 

 base and well rounded at the apex. 



Fore wings (40:9) fully two-thirds as long again as broad; the costal border some- 

 what and rather regularly convex, but rather more so next the base, the outer angle 

 rather abrupt but rounded off; outer margin very broadly rounded, flattened along the 

 middle half, its general course at an angle of about 70° with the middle of the costal 

 border: inner border a little sinuous, convex in the middle of the basal half, concave 

 beyond, the outer border rounded oft'. Costal nervure terminating at the middle of the 

 costal border; subcostal nervure with three branches, the first arising before the mid- 

 dle of the outer two-thirds of the cell, the second at the apex of the cell, and the 

 third nearly as far beyond as the first is in advance of it, the upper branch forking at 

 a similar distance from its base; cell considerably less than half as long as the wing 

 andtliree times as long as broad. 



Hind wings with the costal border considerably and roundly expanded near the 

 base, beyond slightly and regularly convex ; outer border rather strongly rounded and 

 pretty regularly, except a slight rounded excision in the medio-submedian, and the 



