[from the ANNALS AND MAGAZINE OF NATUBAL HISTORY for 

 September 1887.] 



Description of a new Genus of Chakosiid Moths allied to 

 Pedoptila. By ARTHUR G. BUTLER, F.L.S., F.Z.S., &c. 



IN the ' Annals ' for 1885, vol. xv. pp. 340-342, I described 

 a remarkable new genus of moths allied to Himantopterus 

 the type was from Cape Coast and in the collection of Mr. 

 F. Swanzy, who has since presented it to the Trustees of the 

 British Museum. 



A second genus from Zanzibar was described by Herr 

 Rogenhofer, of Vienna, under the name of Doratopteryx, in 

 the l Sitzungsberichten der k.-k. zoolog.-botan. Gesellschaft 

 in Wien ' (vol. xxxiii.) ; and in the ' Annals ' for 1885, vol. 

 xvi., I have compared the characters of the two genera 

 Pedoptila and Doratopteryx, pointing out in what respects 

 they differ both in structure and aspect. 



Whilst recently looking over some Lepidoptera brought to 

 me for examination by Mr. Philip Crowley, I was delighted 

 to find a third very distinct genus of this group, nearer to 

 Pedoptila than to anything else hitherto described, but differ- 

 ing remarkably in neuration and in the form of the secon- 

 daries. 



SEMIOPTILA, gen. nov. (cr^etov, TTT/XOV). 

 Nearest to Pedoptila : primaries more elongated and nar- 

 rower, the subcostal vein four-branched, an extra nervule 

 being emitted before the end of the cell, the second and third 

 branches forming a narrow apical furca, the fourth emitted 

 also at some distance beyond the cell, as in the case of the 

 third branch of Pedoptila; cell open, the termination only 

 indicated by a darker transverse line on the surface of the 

 wing 5 upper radial reduced to a false vein, thickest at outer 

 margin, and passing through the cell almost to the base of 

 the subcostal vein ; lower radial emitted as a fourth median 

 branch, but not from the same point with the third median 

 (as in Pedoptila) ; submedian vein much more nearly ap- 

 proaching the first median branch at its distal extremity : 

 secondaries elongate trigonate, apparently twisted over, so as 

 to bring the costal margin next to the body, in which position 

 it is naturally retained, the anal angle of the wing is thus 

 represented by an obtusely angulated apex, and the apex 

 by an acute anal angle ; the subcostal vein, which is 

 forked before the apex, thus represents a two- branched 

 median vein, whilst the median vein becomes a simple sub- 

 costal vein * ; discoidal cell open as in the primaries : . body 



* Thus viewed, the three veins remain as in Pedoptila, the wing itself 

 being altered in shape and reversed. 



