1920] Holland, Lepidoptera of the Congo 253 



Abantis' Hopffer 



(455) 1. Abantis elegantula ( Mabille) 



Sapoea eleganttda Mabille, 1890, Ann. 8oc. Ent. France, (6) X, p. 32. Mabille 

 AND VuiLLOT, 1891, Novit. Lep., p. 23, PI. in, fig. 6. 



This species is represented bj^ a solitary male taken at Medje, 

 March 8, 1910. 



(456) 2. Abantis efulensis Holland 



Abantis efulensis Holland, 1896, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, p. 21, PI. v, fig. 12. 



There is a single male specimen from Medje which differs from the 

 type, with which it has been compared, only in the fact that the outer 

 border of the hind wings on the upper side is clouded with dark scales to 

 a greater extent than is the case in the individual which I originally 

 described and figured. In this respect, however, it does not differ from 

 other individuals collected since my first description was published. 



(547) 3. Abantis rubra, new species 



Plate XII, Figure 1, c? 

 cf . Frons and inner margins of palpi reddish orange ; outer margins of palpi deep 

 black with a white spot at the base of each just below the eye. Thorax and patagia 

 dark brown, the patagia, so far as the specimen reveals, without light markings (the 

 patagia are in bad case). Abdomen dark brown, with a black median longitudinal 

 line above, and the edges of the segments on the sides adorned with pale reddish 

 vertical spots; lower side of abdomen paler brown than above. The primaries on the 

 upper side are pale semitranslucent fuscous, with all the veins dark brown and clearly 

 defined against the paler ground-color. There is a small subcircular blackish spot at 

 the base, defined outwardly by a few orange-red scales. The ground-color of the 

 secondaries on the upper side is orange-red, the veins are black and clearly defined 

 against the ground-color. At the end of the cell about the middle of the wing is a 

 sharply defined velvety black spot, from which through the middle of the cell there 

 runs to the base a narrow black ray of the same color as the spot at the end of the cell. 

 The outer margin of the secondaries on the upper side is bordered by fuscous, defined 

 inwardly by a narrow band of darker brown which widens a little towards the anal 

 angle. The inner margin is shaded with fuscous. On the under side both wings are 

 pale reddish inclining to fuscous, with all the markings of the upper side reproduced, 

 but in paler tints than on the upper side. Expanse, 33 mm. 



iFairmaire in the Annals of the Entomological Sooiety of Belgium, XXXVIII, 1894, p. 395, 

 announces that he has been informed by his learned colleague, Dr. Berg, that the generic name Abantis 

 Hopffer should be replaced by thegeneric name Abantiades Horrich-Schajffer, and states that he hastens 

 to make announcement of the fact. Unfortunately for this supposed correction I discover that the 

 generic name Abantiadex was proposed by Herrich-Schoeffer for one of the large Australian Hepialids, 

 and he makes Epioliis {Piclus Walker) argenteus Donovan the type of the genus. As the Hepialidae 

 and the Hesperiidie are rather far apart in any system of classification, which has thus far been pro- 

 posed (about as far apart as tigers and squirrels among mammals), the correction provokes a smile. 

 The name Abantifi Hopffer stands in spite of the discovery of Doctors Berg and Fairmaire. The type 

 of the genus is A. tettensis Hopffer, as pointed out bv Scudder (Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts and Sciences, X, 

 187.5, p. 99). 



