OF THE AMAZON VALLEY. 549 



This species, which is the only Ithomia found in the Amazon region that might be 

 considered a Symenitis, is found only at Tabatinga, on the Peruvian frontier. It re- 

 sembles much I. Eclessa (Hewitson, Exot. Butt. Ithomia, fig. 42.), a native of S. E. Brazil; 

 but it is a little larger, and differs considerably in the hind- wing neuration of the t? . In 

 I. Edessa there is a middle and an upper disco-cellular nervule, and the upper radial is 

 only j)artially aborted ; indeed, the neuration is identical with that of I. Virginia and 

 I. Oriana ; but in Nephele the approximation to Symenitis is carried a step further ; for 

 the middle and upper disco-cellulars, as well as the upper radial, are all quite aborted, 

 although the lower disco-cellular and radial are not attached to the subcostal. In the S 

 the middle disco-cellular joins the subcostal, and there is no trace of an upper radial. 



Genus Melin^a, nov. genus. 



The species of this distinct group were placed by Doubleday in section 2 of the genus 

 Mechanitis ; but he failed to mention or misstated most of the principal characters of the 

 section. The genus is nearest allied to Olyras and Thyridia ; in fact, it approximates 

 these much more closely than it does Mechanitis. Erom Olyras it differs in the fore 

 legs of the cJ , in the palpi, and slightly in the wing-neuration ; from Thyridia also in 

 the fore legs of the male, in the palpi, and in the antennas. The following are its principal 

 characters. 



Palpi short, smoothly clothed with scales, and closely applied to the forehead ; third 

 joint not porrect as in Mechanitis and the allied genera. Antennae very long and slender. 

 Eore legs of the S with the tibiae and tarsi more or less abbreviated, but never reduced 

 to a rounded knob ; the tibia always shorter than the femur. Eore tarsi of the 2 long, 

 filiform, spines wide apart. Hind-wing costal widely separated from the subcostal in 

 both sexes, in the d long, reaching nearly the apex of the wing, in the ? very short, 

 terminating on the costa : the lower disco-cellular in both sexes straight, nearly in a line 

 with the median nervure ; the median nervure, in fact, describes a gentle curve, the lower 

 radial being placed as though it were a fourth median branch : the middle disco-cellular 

 is at right angles with the lower, strongly angulated in its middle, and emitting a 

 recurrent nervule : upper disco-cellular rather long, transverse, joining the subcostal at 

 about one-haK the length of the wing. 



The great resemblance in colours and markings between the species of Melincea and 

 those of Mechanitis has led to the confounding of the two genera ; in other words, a 

 relation of analogy has been mistaken for one of afS.nity, just as in the case of the two 

 subfamilies Seliconince and Danamce. There is, however, as will be seen on comparing 

 the characters of the two genera, a wide structural difference in the palpi, fore legs of 

 the male, and neuration of the hind wings. Some species of Melincea so nearly resemble 

 species of Mechanitis, that they might easily be mistaken for them. The two analogous 

 forms accompany each other ; but I think I found proof that they are not adapted one 

 to the other, in the fact that the species of the two genera do not coincide in any locality 

 on the Amazons, but vary and segregate races without any mutual specific similarity. 

 They are very frequently accompanied by a Seliconius assimilated to them in colours 



