KEPORT OP THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



151 



into a long, stout, cylindrical, prehensile tentacle, armed with spines springing from flat- 

 tened tubercles (c); this joint in the (^ a mere blunt-pointed tubercle (Fig. 74, rf); the other 

 joints ahnoat smooth ; 2nd, short, stout, and directed backward ; 3rd, more slender, 

 and as long again as 2nd ; 4th, thrice as long as 3d ; 5th, as long as 2nd, slender and 

 subfusiform ; labial palpi (Fig. 74,(7) moderately covered with hair-like scales, reacliing 

 nearly to base of antennfe ; 3-jointed ; basal joint curved and stout; 2nd, half as long 

 and straight ; 3d, short and fusiform ; tongue long and smooth. Legs with the usual 

 single spur on the front, a pair on the middle, and two pair on the hind tibije. Abdomen, 

 5 with the terminal joint laterally compressed, long, horny, bare; the sheath of the 

 ovipositor acute ; the ovipositor when extended very long, tine, and thread-like ; c? 

 shorter, blunt, and slightly swollen at tip ; the genital hooks large, synu\jetrical ; the 

 upper edge entire and thickened, the lower edge excavated about the middle, with a 

 dark tooth iji middle of excavation. 



Approaches in the venation of the wings such genera as Ana- 

 pliora Clem, and Aviydria Clem., but is at once distinguished from all 

 other known genera by the characters given, and especially by the 

 maxillary palpi. The variation in the wing venation affords another 

 illustration of the unsoundness of the principle of founding genera 

 on the pterogostic characters alone, especially when taken from one 

 or two individuals only. 



Pkoxuba yuccasella, n. sp. (Fig. 75, c). 



Average expanse, $ 1 inch ; c^ 0.90 inch. Front wings, above, uniformly silvery- 

 white, the scales loosely set; fringes concolorous; beneath, pale fuscous, with a brassy 



reflection ; paler internally ; fringes either concolor- 

 ous or paler ; costa with a brush of dark hairs. Hitid 

 wings semi-transparent, pale fuscous both above and 

 below ; paler internally, the fringes white and the 

 brush on shoulder dark. Head white ; antennae and 

 tongue dingy yellow ; maxillary palpi of same color, 

 with the exception of tentacle, which is darker ; la- 

 'bial palpi with scales on 2nd joint dark brown above; 

 eyes blaclv. Thorax white. Legs dingy yellow, more 

 or less covered with pale scales. Abdomen with the 

 terminal joint in $ always bare, with the exception 

 of a few short, stiff hairs near tip, and the scales on the other joints very loosely at- 

 tached. 



Described from 9 cfs, 15 Js. 



I take the present occasion to describe this new genus, not be- 

 cause it is so characteristic and anomalous, but because, firstly, the 

 species belonging to it has such very interesting habits ; and secondly, 

 there is much yet to learn of these habits, and I wish to draw the at- 

 tention of entomologists to the subject. 



Of late years, and more especially since the publication of Mr. 

 Charles Darwin's interesting work on the fertilization of Orchids,* 

 we have come to understand more and more the important part which 



* On the various Contrivances by wliicli British and Foreign Orchids are fertilized bj^ Insects 

 London, 1802. 



