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III. On the Genus Deilemera, Hiibner. By CoLONEL 

 Charles Swinhoe, M.A., F.L.S., F.Z.S. 



[Read Feb. 4th, 1903.] 



Plates III and IV. 



The genus Nyctemcra was erected by Hiibner in the 

 Verzeichniss, p. 178, and diagnosed as " Die Fliigel weiss 

 und weissfleckig schwarz gesaumt." Under this genus 

 Hiibner put seven species in the following order : — 



Jiesperia, Cram., Pap. Exot., iii, pi. 251, f. A. B. (1780). 



cafra, Drury, III. Ex. Ent., iii, pi. 5, f. 1 (1780). 



nerina, Drury, 1. c, f. 2. 



coleta, Cram., 1. c, iv, pi. 368, f. D. H. (1782). 



famula, Drury, 1. c, ii, pi. 11, f. 3 (1773). 



atralba, Hiibner = tripunctaria, Linn., Syst. Nat., i, p. 



523 (1758). 

 lacticinia, Cram., 1. c, ii, pi. 128, f. E. (1779). 



Walker in the 2nd vol. of his Catalogue, p. 402, erected 

 the genus Otrocda, placing therein in the following order : — 



hesperia, Cram., 1. c, 

 occidentis, Walker, ii, 403, 

 vesperina, Walker, ii, 403, 

 caffra, Drury, 1. c, 

 nerina, Drury, 1. c, 



leaving coleta, Cram., as the type of Hiibner's genus Nycte- 

 mera; and this seems to have been followed ever since, 

 except that Hampson makes laeticinia, the seventh in the 

 list of Hiibner's named species, the type of the genus. 



No author in erecting a new genus can be justified in 

 removing the first three species, includiug of covirse the 

 type, of a genus already in existence, yet this is what 

 Walker did. 



It is not only that hesperia, being the first species in the 

 seven under the genus Nyctemera, is thus made the type 

 of the genus, but Hiibner's diagnosis, " wings white Avith 

 white-spotted black borders," is a good description of 

 hesperia, and not of any one of Walker's so-CA\\ed Nyctcmeras; 

 consequently as hesperiai'S, the type of the genus Nyctemera 



TRANS. ENT. SUC. LOND. 1903. — PART I. (APKIL) 



