[103] ON A NEW SPECIES OF HYPOCALA. 215 



XX. ON A NEW SPECIES OF HYPOCALA. 



Among the unequaled collections in number, variety and 

 rarity, made at the famous Center locality during the season 

 of 1877, perhaps the most interesting capture is that which 

 gives us, for the first time, representation of a genus of trop- 

 ical insects of marked beauty, rivalling the Catocalas, to 

 which they are closely allied. 



Of the eight species of HYPOCALA described by Guenee (two 

 of which are Fabrician species), five are from the East Indies, 

 one from Africa, one from Honduras (N. Lat. 15) and one 

 from Hayti (N. Lat. 19). That a species, typical of the genus, 

 should occur in the State of New York (N. Lat. 42), is a dis- 

 covery of exceeding interest, adding, as it does, to our list of 

 ISToctuas, a peculiar and beautiful form, which, there is reason 

 to believe, will long remain a rarity in our collections. 



In consideration of the peculiar characters of these moths, 

 Guenee, in his Noctuelites, Tome III, has arranged them in a 

 separate family which he designates as Hypocalidse, consist- 

 ing of the single genus of HYPOCALA. The genus he defines 

 as follows: 



"Caterpillars unknown. Moths Antennae, medium, more 

 or less pubescent in the 6 - Palpi very projecting, quite large, 

 compressed, contiguous, with joints indistinct and ordinarily 

 of triangular form the last as scaly as the preceding. Tongue 

 moderate. Eyes large and projecting. Frontal tuft elongated, 

 carinated, thick and close (serre). Thorax oblong, scaly, stout. 

 Abdomen long, swollen, not carinated above, somewhat hairy, 

 yellow with black spots, bearing a small tuft at the base. Legs 

 strong, slightly hairy. Wings subdentate ; the superiors pul- 

 verulent, the subterminal line in part distinct : the inferiors 

 yellow with a black border, having the nervule-independent 

 [disco- central nervule vein 5], inserted near the three others, 

 opposite the 4th inferior [1st median nervule vein 2]." 



Guenee remarks : " The species of this genus are of medium 

 size, and very similar to one another, so that their varieties 



