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lefehurei). Tin/ ciijlith ixbilmuiiial tergite is feebly Niuuate, oi- ronndeil-lniiicate ; 

 the sternite strongly chitinons, forming a glalirous postvagiiial jilate. The vaginal 

 aperture is covered in front by a broad chitiuous lobe of variable length ; there 

 is a transverse ridge at the base of the lobe where the intersegmental membrane 

 joins the vaginal armature ; chitiu-jilate of seventh sternite rather short, rounded 

 at end, or sinuate, the distal ])art of the sternite uienibranous or semimembranous. 



Larva : cylindrical, head rounded, not obviously narrowed above ; horn simjily 

 curving downward, granulose ; segments 4 to 11 with oblique side-bauds (except 

 in albiplaga). Not known of many species. — Food : Solanaceae. 



Pupa : tongue-case free, curved, the tip nearly touching the lireast. 

 Hah. America, from the North to the South, most plentiful in the Iropics. 

 Thirty species. 



Attempts have been made by several authors to divide the assemblage of 

 species here united under Protoparce. into a number of genera. We have vainly 

 endeavoured to find relialde characters to distinguish geuerically such different- 

 looking insects as fiistica, ochus, lefehurei, hrontes,J{oresta)i, scxta, etc., etc. It 

 is true the species do not agree in all respects. Yes, there are even groups of 

 closer allied species in Protoparce as conceived by us ; but the differences Ijetween 

 these groups disaj)]K'ar, the gaps are filled uj) by intergraduate forms, when all 

 the species are compared. Some species have a larger and more prominent head 

 than others, some have longer antennae, larger or more obviously lashed eyes, or 

 long and strong sjiines on the foretarsus, or possess very long s])urs, or mesial 

 tufts of half-erect scales on the abdomen, or similar tufts at the apical edges of 

 the tergites; many have yellow abdominal jjatches, and many have none ; there may 

 be a large pulvillns in one species, and a near relative may be without such a pad. 

 Not one of these characters can be relied upon in sjditting U]) the genus Protoparce 

 into several definable genera, which contain at the same time the species which 

 are nearly related to one another. It is only jiossible to define such "genera" 

 as Diludia and 8ijzi/gia, if one disregards the intergraduate forms altogether. 



We emphasize that the presence or absence of a pulvillns, though a very 

 convenient character for the separation of the species in a key, cannot serve as a 

 basis for the division of the genus into two natural gronps. 



The genus is essentially tropical ; two species extend far into the southern 

 temperate zone (sexta, peticniae), two into the northern temperature zone {sexta, 

 tpi.infjuemaculatu.f). It represents the stock from which several genera of the 

 Nearctic region have originated. There are two very interesting points to be 

 observed in this respect : 



1. The similarity between the genera Atrcnx, ChlaeiiOfjramma, Daremma, and 

 mmic species oi Protoparce. {riiHtk-a,//orestaii),'w pattt^rn and structure is so close 

 that one can scarcely fail to recognise the near ndationship of these insects. 



■^. Tli<: distiiignisjiing characters of those oft'shoots from Protoparce — i.e. from 

 ancestral forms which would fit into Protoparce as conceived by us— are essentially 

 negative, consisting of differences which are the outcome of a progressive reduction 

 of organs. It is very interesting to follow this reduction of organs as it goes on 

 and on in the assemblage of genera jilaced here between Protoparce and Kllema. 

 The several series into which these genera arrange themselves demonstrate clearly, 

 by the close connection still existing between the genera of each series, that the 

 direction of development is from the forms with develo|)ed organs to those with 

 reduced organs ; that I'rotoparee is not the heterogenous jiroduct of a convergent 



