1840 BUTTERFLIES BEYOND NEW ENGLAND. 



very strongly compressed, the basal joint arcuate and pretty long, appressed to the 

 head ; the middle joint broad oval, not more than half as long again as broad ; the third 

 minute. 



Fore wings rather long, with a strongly arched costal margin, a straight outer margin 

 at right angles to the outer part of the costa and straight, long inner margin with 

 rounded angle, the whole wing much more than half as long again as broad, the ex- 

 tremities of the costal and inner margins parallel. Costal nervnre terminating a little 

 beyond the cell, which is about half as long as the wing; subcostal nervnre with three 

 equidistant and not very distant superior branches, the second arising from the tip of 

 the cell, the third forked. HinO wings rather long, rounded oval, with abroad, angular 

 lobe at the extremity of the middle median nervule. Noprecostal nervnre; vein clos- 

 ing the cell striking the last subcostal nervure a very little further from its origin than 

 the last median from its base. 



Legs very slender and delicate, not long. Fore femora in the male nearly half as 

 long again as the hind femora, nearly twice as long as the fore tibiae, which are 

 scarcely longer than the first joint of the tarsi, and only half as long as the whole 

 tarsus. Hind tibiae half as long again as the fore tibiae, a little longer than the first 

 tarsal joint, which equals the three succeeding joints, the fifth joint being as long as the 

 third. Spines very fine and crowded. Claws exceedingly small and delicate, no longer 

 than the width of the last joint, and slender, deeply cleft and strongly arcuate. Parony- 

 chia simple, forming a large, oval, pilose, inferior, lateral flap, as long as the claws, 

 and nearly half as broad as long. 



This American type of Rhodoceridi is composed of a moderate number 

 of species, whose home is in subtropical and tropical North America, 

 occurring in South America only in the northernmost parts. Little or 

 nothing is known of their history ; the present species is the only one 

 occurring in the United States. 



F7RISITIA MEXICANA. 



Terias mexicana Boisd., Spec. g6n. L6p., schmett., v: 29-30, figs. 917, 918 (1837). 



i : 655, p). 19, fig. 1 (1836) ;— French, Butt. east. Terias boisduvaliana Fekl., Reise Novara, 



U. S., 137-138, fig. 34 (1886). 200 (1865). 



Abaeis mexicana Gey., Hubn.,Zutr. exot. 



Imago, Head covered with pink brown erect scales and hairs ; palpi the same but 

 with a greater or less number of pale yellow scales intermingled, especially at the base; 

 antennae brown above, white beneath, at the sides annulate with white, the naked por- 

 tion of the club ferruginous, the extreme tip dull luteous. Thorax covered above with 

 bluish white hairs, below with yellow hairs; legs pale yellow, growing luteous toward 

 the extremity. 



Wings above white with a greenish tinge, heavily marked on the outer border with 

 blackish brown. Fore unngs having the costal edge marked with white at the tips of 

 the subcostal nervules ; the division between the light and dark portions of the wing 

 is marked by a very irregular line, more irregular in the male than in the female; it 

 starts from a little beyond the middle of the costal margin, runs in an oblique course 

 to a little before the middle of the upper median nervule, then follows this nervule 

 halfway or more than halfway to the margin, turns at nearly right angles, following 

 the margin across the upper median and sometimes the lower median interspace, re- 

 turns to its former distance from the margin by abruptly turning and following either 

 the upper median ( J ) or the lower median ( $ ) nervule, crosses the medio-submedian 

 interspace transversely and then runs sharply outward, the base extending in a slender 

 tongue a short ( $ ) or a great C (J ) distance; extreme base of the inner margin flecked 

 with brown, especially in the male. On the hind loiiiys the outer bordering is distinc 



