62 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. 115 



of the South American species, and none of the latter are referable 

 to Hypercallia. 



The genus Gonionota was proposed by Zeller ^ for 0. notodontella 

 Zeller. 



Meyrick^ recognized the genus and stated: "I give the characters 

 of this genus, which was incompletely described by Zeller, who 

 regarded it as a group of Hypercallia, from which it is in fact very 

 distinct. . . ." Later, in the same paragraph, he stated: "I am 

 informed by Mr. Busck that the typical species of Gonionota, G. 

 notodontella, ZelL, has vein 9 of fore-wings rising from the stalk of 

 7 and 8. . . ." Walsingham ^ has pointed out: "Some error has 

 occurred here — the neuration of the Type of Gonionota notodontella Z. 

 is: FW: 12 veins; 7-8 stalked, 7 to termen; 9 and other veins separate; 

 2 twice as remote from 3 as 3 is from 4. HW: 8 veins; 3-4 connate; 

 5-7 parallel. — Drnt." Obviously Busck was not famihar with 

 notodontella (there are no specimens in the U.S. National Museum) 

 because he would not have overlooked such a clear character as the 

 relation of vein 9 in the fore wing to 7 and 8. In 1922 * Meyrick 

 suppressed Gonionota in favor of Hypercallia and placed all the species 

 of this group in the latter genus. 



Gonionota is a distinct genus, as pointed out by Meyrick in 1909, 

 and may be distinguished from Hypercallia by the uptm-ned palpus, 

 the third segment roughened posteriorly, the pubescent or short- 

 ciliated antenna of the male, the smooth antenna of the female, the 

 bifurcate uncus, and the presence of a clasper or other ornamentation 

 on the harpe. Gonionota is most nearly related to the South American 

 genus Co2)totelia, from which it is distinguished by the strong posterior 

 thoracic scale-tuft, by vein 9 of the forewing being widely separated 

 from the stalk of 7 and 8, and by the termen being convex. In the 

 hind wing, veins 3 and 4 are usually connate, but all species provide 

 examples with veins 3 and 4 stalked. 



Gonionota melobaphes Walsingham 



Figure 1; Plates 1 (Fig. 6), 2 (Fig. 1) 



Gonionota melobaphes Walsingham, 1912, in Godman and Salvin, Biologia Centrali- 

 Americana, vol. 42 (Lepidoptera-Heterocera, vol. 4), p. 129, pi. 4, fig. 27. — 

 Amsel, 1956, Bol. Ent. Venezolana, vol. 10 (nos. 1 and 2), p. 294, pi. 64 

 (fig. 5), pi. 108 (fig. 10). 



Hypercallia melobaphes (Walsingham), Meyrick, 1922, in Wytsman, Genera 

 insectorum, fasc. 180, p. 162, no. 22; 1926, Exotic Microlepidoptera, vol. 3, 

 p. 314; 1930, Ann. Naturhist. Mus. Wien, vol. 44, p. 233.— Gaede, 1939, 

 in Bryk, Lepidopterorum catalogus, part 92, p. 261. 



J 1877, Hor. Soc. Ent. Ross., vol. 13, p. 379. 

 2 1909, Trans. Ent. Soc. London, 1909, p. 24. 



8 1912, in Godman and Salvin, Biologia Centrali-Amerlcana, vol. 42 (Lepidoptera-Heterocera, vol. 4), 

 p. 128. 

 * 1922, in Wytsman, Genera insectorum, fasc. 180, p. 161. 



