94 Mr. W. W. Saunders on the 



V. On the Genus Erycina, Linn., toith Descriptions of 

 some New Species. By W. Wilson Saunders, Esq., 

 F.R.S., &c. 



[Read Jan. 7th, 1858.] 



In the year 1849 I laid before the "Entomological Society" de- 

 scriptions of several new species of the genus Erijcina, Linn., toge- 

 ther with an enumeration of the species which had been previously 

 described. Since that period the exertions of collectors in tropical 

 America have brought to light other species which are new to 

 science, and further information regarding the known species has 

 reached this country, so that it appears desirable again to take the 

 genus Erycina in hand, and place the new matter before the Society, 

 in a paper which will form a continuation of the one already pub- 

 lished on the same subject in the Society's Transactions. Mr. 

 Westwood, since that paper was written, has revised the whole 

 family of Erycirtidce in the " Genera of Diurnal Lepidoptera," where 

 he makes but little alteration in the view I held of the tailed 

 species forming but a single genus — the true Erycinas. The only 

 change he proposes is the separation of the clear-winged species, 

 considering them generically distinct, and placing them under the 

 name Zeon'ia. In the propriety of this I think he is justified, as 

 further study of the species shows that they have characters which 

 well and distinctly separate them from the neares.t allied forms of 

 the restricted genus Erycina. Mr. Westwood, in the work alluded 

 to, described one new species of Erycina under the name of Bel- 

 phegor, and this is the only addition to the tailed species which 

 has taken place since my first paper was written. Of species 

 nearly allied to the true Erycinas, Mr. Westwood, in the same 

 work, described certain tail-less forms, placing them in two new 

 genera, Nccyria and Lyropterix. In the following sketch I shall 

 include the new species falling under these genera, as they are 

 associated with the true Erycinas by some Entomologists, and 

 should be treated of at the same time. 



