from the Rio Nautla, State of Vera Cruz. 287 
less completely black, second and third segments with a 
median black line always interrupted at sutures and often 
very indistinct, fourth segment with a black triangle, fifth 
wholly blackish. The specimens agree very well with Say’s 
description, which, however, is very brief. 
X. atripennis is closely allied to this species, differing only 
in the wings being almost wholly black, and the abdomen of 
male (female unknown) almost wholly yellow, the rust- 
brownish markings often subobsolete. Say’s specimen of 
Phasia atripennis must have been a male, in which the pre- 
sutural golden of mesonotum was not so much developed as 
in the present specimens, and with the median row of blackish 
spots obsolete. ‘This species is known from Indiana, District 
of Columbia (Zowns.), and Florida. My specimens from the 
District of Columbia were taken on the flowers of Aster sp. 
X. arcuata is now for the first time recorded from Mexico. 
It is known elsewhere only from Indiana and L[llinois. 
Both of these species are quite different from X. articulata, 
Wulp and Giglio-Tos, to judge from the latter’s figure and 
description, the antenne being much elongate in articulata, 
and the abdominal segments bearing a lateral marginal macro- 
cheta, which characters are not possessed by arcuata and 
atripennis. 
Wulp’s short descriptions (Tijdschr. voor Ent. xxxv. 1892, 
p. 188), supplemented by Giglio-Tos’s description and figure 
(Ditt. Mess. pt. i. pp. 4-5, pl. fig. 12), place the genus 
Xanthomelana with sufficient certainty. The name should, 
however, as I have pointed out (Can. Ent., July 1893, p. 167) 
be changed to Xanthomelanodes, the other name being rightly 
precluded by its close similarity to Xanthomelon in Mollusca, 
even though the derivation be not identical. The petiole of 
apical cell, as [ have mentioned in the description of aéri- 
pennis, is rather long, and not short as described by Wulp in 
his generic diagnosis. I believe that the genus should be 
restricted to the forms similar to arcuata and atripennis, with 
their venation ; with antenne short, having second and third 
joints nearly equal in length; and with the front wide in 
_ both sexes. The two species anceps and articulata, included 
in the genus by Wulp, are disturbing elements in its proper 
characterization and should be excluded. Wulp says nothing 
of the genital characters, by which it is very easy to dis- 
tinguish the sexes. ‘The male abdomen is blunt and laterally 
compressed apically, and the hypopygium is easily seen on 
the underside near tip. ‘The female abdomen is more pointed 
at tip, and the segments are narrowed and drawn in. This 
genus belongs in the Phaniida. 
