GENUS DINEURA. 9 



species, which only agree with Dineura proper in the 

 neuration of the wings. In other respects they agree 

 better with Blennocampa, to which some of them have 

 been referred by Thomson; but, as we are at present 

 unacquainted with the larvse of these small species, 

 and as they differ from Blennocampa in the posterior 

 wings haying two middle cellules, as well as in the wider 

 costal cellule (the costa not becoming dilated before 

 the stigma as in Blennocampa) , I have preferred to 

 retain them in the meantime in Dineura. The man- 

 dibles are broader, thicker, the apical tooth much 

 shorter and blunter; the palpi are shorter and 

 thicker, and more like those of Blennocampa than of 

 the typical species of Dineura. 



The peculiarity in the neuration in D. verna I can 

 only regard as specific ; it is not even constant ; some- 

 times the transverse radial is received in the third 

 cubital cellule, at other times in the fourth, while the 

 second recurrent may be received in the second or 

 third cellules. 



Twelve Palsearctic species of this genus are known; 

 seven North American, and one doubtful species from 

 Chili ; to it also may, in all probability, be referred the 

 West African Xenapates africanus. A curious thing 

 about all the species is the irregularity in the position 

 of the nervures, especially the transverse cubital and 

 transverse radial ; the former vary much in position 

 arid hence the size of the cellules varies, while the 

 latter (especially in stilata and testaceipes) is often 

 completely absent. When this happens they become 

 practically Nemati, for I am not aware of any other 

 character whereby they may be separated from Nematus 

 than by the presence of the transverse radial nervure. 

 Thomson, probably on this account, regards Dineura as 

 merely a section of Nematus, but seeing how similar 

 the larvae are, and that it is after all only exceptionally 

 that the transverse nervure is absent, I have preferred 

 to keep it apart. 



The absence so frequently of the transverse radial 



