1898.] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. II 



DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW WEST AFRICAN HETEROCERA- 



Paper I. 



By Chancellor W.J. Holland, Ph.D., LL.D., F.Z.S., etc. 



When starting for a short visit to Europe last May, I succeeded 

 in finding a few moments' time in which to hastily gather to- 

 gether some five score of specimens from my collection of African 

 Lepidoptera, which I had reason to think new to science, and 

 took them with me. I found time in the midst of other duties 

 to pay a number of visits to the British Museum and the Royal 

 Museum in Berlin, as well as to inspect a number of collections 

 in private hands, which are rich in African material. As the 

 result my opinion as to the nondescript character of most of the 

 species was confirmed, and I propose from time to time, as I chance 

 to have leisure, to publish descriptions of these things, possibly 

 accompanied by illustrations, if I shall find time to prepare the 

 latter. The types are all in my collection. 



Family SYNTOMID/E. 



Genus SYNTOMOIDES* Hampson. 



1. S. xanthopleura sp. nov. J\ — The wings are marked exactly as in 

 S. puncticincta Holl. ("Psyche," January, 1893), but the species in hand 

 may at once be distinguished by the totally different markings of the body. 

 The front is pale yellow, almost white, the collar and patagia are orange- 

 yellow, the top of the thorax is black. The abdomen is orange-yellow, 

 with a black dorsal line beginning on the third segment from the thorax, 

 on which, as well as on the fourth segment, it is extended down on either 

 side to the line of the spiracles, as a saddle-shaped mark. This dorsal 

 line is narrow on the remaining segments of the abdomen, and disappears 

 wholly before reaching the anal extremity. The underside of the thorax 

 and abdomen is grayish yellow. The legs are black, marked with yellow- 

 ish rings. Expanse 25 mm. 



Habitat. — Efulen, Bule Country, Cameroons(coll. A. C. Good, 

 Ph.D.). 



2. S. seminigra sp. nov. 9 • — The forewings are marked as in S. leugalea 



*In "Psyche" for January and February, 1893, I described a number of West African 

 Syntomidae, referring them to the genus Syntomis. In so doing I was following well-estab 

 iished precedents. After the descriptions had been prepared and published I received 

 the first volume of Sir George F. Hampson's work on the Lepidoptera of India, and 

 found that he had erected a new genus, Synzomoides, for the reception of a number of the 

 forms hitherto placed by authors in Syntomis. His arrangement is certainly natural, and 

 1 desire to state that of the species named by me at the time referred to. the following 

 will naturally come under his genius Syntomoides ; — S. leugalea, elasson, elackista, misera- 

 bills, puncticincta, leitnacis, goodii, reutlingeri, cytogaster, leucerythra, crenophylax and 

 cybelistes. 



