340 Mr. A. G. Butler on a new Genus of 



XXVIII. — Description of a new Genus of Chalcosiida? allied 

 to Himantopterus. By Arthur G. Butler, F.L.S., 

 F.Z.S., &c. 



The genus Himantopterus, represented by a very remarkable 

 moth from Java, was described by M. Wesmael in 1836, in 

 the ' Bulletins de l'Academie Royale des Sciences de Bruxel- 

 les' (1st ser. vol. iii. pp. 162, 163, pi. vi. fig. 1). The chief 

 peculiarity of this moth consists in its linear and much-elon- 

 gated secondaries, which are in fact mere balancers, similar 

 to the tails which terminate the wings of some genera of 

 Lycsenidae. 



In describing his new genus M. Wesmael gave no account 

 of the neuration of the wings ; but this omission was subse- 

 quently remedied by Prof. Westwood, who, in 1876, examined 

 the type in the Brussels Museum, and made a careful drawing 

 of the venation, which he published in the ' Transactions 

 of the Entomological Society ' for 1877, pi. x. From his 

 description, as well as from that of M. Wesmael, the secon- 

 daries appear to have no neuration. 



In the first volume of the l Zoologist,' pp. 197, 198, Mr. 

 Edward Doubleday described and figured, under the name of 

 Thymara, a new genus allied to Himantopterus, the posterior 

 wings of which, however, though ornamented with a long 

 tail, are fully developed ; at the same time he reproduced 

 Wesmael's figure in outline. 



Although Himantopterus and Thymara are allied genera, 

 they differ so considerably in the development of their secon- 

 daries that it was to be expected that intermediate genera 

 would eventually be discovered tending to show the modifi- 

 cation of a true wing into a mere rudimentary appendage, 

 and now, after the lapse of upwards of forty years, one of 

 these links has at last come to light. 



In the l Verhandlungen der zoologisch-botanischen Gesell- 

 schaft ' of Vienna (vol. xxviii. p. 42), there is a record of 

 " a second species of the genus Himantopterus " from Zan- 

 zibar, brought home by Mr. E. Marno, and identified by Mr. 

 Rogenhofer. One would naturally have expected so impor- 

 tant a novelty to be figured in the Lepidopterous portion of 

 the * Eeise der Novara,' yet, up to the present time, it 

 appears to remain in obscurity. 



In a collection recently received by Mr. Francis Swanzy 

 from the west coast of Africa was a small moth of such 

 remarkable form that he brought it to me and asked me if I 

 knew anything like it. I at once pronounced it to be a 



