NORTH AMERICAN LEPIDOPTERA. 155 



lent;:tli posteriorly. Primaries narrow, moderately long, apex pointed, 

 outer margin oblique, somewhat scalloped between the nervules ; 

 secondaries small, the apex acute, anal angle marked, but not promi- 

 nent. The venation presents nothing out of the ordinary type. 



The genitalia of the % are distinctive. The supra-anal plate 

 divides rather close to the base, forming two long, somewhat divari- 

 cate prongs, which really consist of two portions ; the upper is semi- 

 chitinous, somewhat flattened and densely set with somewhat diver- 

 gent bristles ; the lower consists of more corneous, slender, cylindrical, 

 smooth hooks, which are pointed at tip ; side pieces oblong, with 

 obliquely rounded tip; clasper various in shape — in fact no two spe- 

 cies are entirely alike in any of the parts and eacli species will be 

 described more in detail hereafter. 



The genus is an easily recognizable one. The divided crest of the 

 thorax is a peculiarity (among our forms) of this genus, and is dis- 

 tinctive. Add to this the eh^ngate build, the somewhat scalloped 

 margins of primaries, the confused maculation of primaries and the 

 discolored, dusky margined secondaries, and they form a combination 

 not readily mistakable. 



The genus is a sub-tropical one, and our forms are all from southern 

 Florida and Texas. One species, ello, sometimes ranges North as a 

 visitor as far as northern New York and Massachusetts, but these 

 are stray examples. 



Six species have been described fi'om our fauna, of which I have 

 been unable to make a close study of festa and viehnichoUca from 

 lack of material. Of these ello and obscura are pale, ashv gray 

 forms with the secondaries deep red, margined with blackish brow'n. 

 Inter se these are distinguished — ello, by the greater size and banded 

 abdomen ; obscura, by its small size, and its iinbanded abdomen. 



The other species have the primaries dark, blackish brown, usually 

 paler along the inner margin and sometimes gray marked. Of these 

 meriamc and edwardsii have the abdomen banded ; ineriance has the 

 secondaries dull red, while in edivardsii they are bright yellow. The 

 others, melnncholica and festa, have the abdomen not banded, but 

 with a dorsal stripe simply. Melancholica is larger and i)aler ; feda 

 is closely allied, but readily separated by its much smaller size and 

 darker color. 



It will be seen thus that every one of our species offers some salient 

 feature, easily i-ecognizable. 



