3 s LLOYD'S NATURAL HISTORY. 



GENUS LEMONIAS. 



Lemonias, Hiibner, Sammlung Exot. Schmett. i. pis. 35-38 

 (1805?); Doubl. List Lepid. Brit. Mus. ii. p. 16 (1847); 

 Westwood, Genera of Diurnal Lepidoptera, p. 457 

 (1851); Butler, Journ. Linn. Soc. London, Zoology, ix. 

 p. 213 (1867); Godman and Salvin, Biologia Centrali- 

 Americana, Lepid. Rhop. i. p. 457 (1886); Schatz & 

 Rober, Exot. Schmett. ii. p. 253 (1892). 



This is the typical genus of a large number of closely-allied 

 forms, many of which have a general resemblance to Lyccenidcz. 

 They are small and rather delicately-formed Butterflies, gener- 

 ally brown above, more or less varied with red, blue, tawny, or 

 yellow, and the under surface is of some paler colour spotted 

 with black. The fore-wings are triangular, broad, not much 

 longer than the hind-wings, and rarely pointed at the tips ; the 

 hind-wings are rounded and entire. 



Hiibner used the name Lemonias for at least three totally 

 different genera in successive works, and the dates are doubt- 

 ful. It is true that, as Dr. Scudder points out, he indicated 

 Melitcza maturna, Linn., as the type in his " Tentamen," with 

 a binomial nomenclature ; but the date of this very rare tract 

 is doubtful, and is almost certainly later than 1807. But in his 

 " Sammlung exotischer Schmetterlinge," vol. i,, which was com- 

 menced in 1805, he figures four species of the present group as 

 "Lemonias maculata" viz., L. m. zygia, L. m. luciana, L, m. 

 alph<za> and L. m. epulus. The generic names of the first volume 

 of the "Sammlung " (apart from the objection that they are not 

 characterised) are often rejected because of their trinomial form, 

 " Lemonias maculata" &c. But this objection, if valid, would 

 also apply to many, if not most, of the Linnaean genera, and 

 would thus shake the very foundations of our nomenclature. In 



