6942 Entomological Society. 



Mr. H. W. Bates communicated the following 



Diagnoses of three New Species of Diurnal Lepidoptera belonging to the Genus 

 Agrias, and of one belonging to Siderone. 



*' Wishing to dedicate one of the grandest new species of Agrias (a genus which 

 he has done so much to illustrate) to Mr. W. C. Hewitson, I send the diagnosis fur 

 insertion in the ' Report of the Proceedings of the Entomological Society * for March, 

 preparatory to the figures which Mr. Hewitson will publish in the April part of his 

 •Exoiic Butterflies,' I add the diagnoses of two other new species which will be 

 figured on the same plate, as well as of a species of Siderone, intended to be figured at 

 some subsequent early date. All four species were taken by myself on the Upper 

 Amazons, and belong to the most beautiful productions of that wonderful country. 

 The discovery of the female of one of the species makes the present communication of 

 some importance in a scientific point of view ; as the non-appearance of females with 

 the usual Nymphalideous structure of the fore legs in that sex, in the genera Agrias 

 and Megistanis, seems to have excited doubts as to the constancy of that sexual cha- 

 racter throughout the whole family, especially as two forms of males have occurred in 

 some species having the usual superficial appearance of the two sexes (e. g. in Megis- 

 tanis Baeotus). But the discovery of the females in the allied genus Agrias shows 

 that the sexual character in the fore legs is precisely of the same nature here as in the 

 rest of the family Nymphalidae. The four species now characterized will be included 

 in the 'Insect Fauna of the Amazon Valley, Part Diurnal Lepidoptera,' now 

 preparing for publication. 



" Ageus Hewitsonius. 



" ^. Size of A. Phalcidon (Hewits. Ex. B.) Above. Black. Fore wing having 

 at the base a large orange-coloured spot, rounded on its outer edge ; followed by a 

 broad belt of dark blue, extending from the costa to very near the hind margin ; 

 edged externally by a belt of six pale greenish lunules. Near the apex is a short belt 

 of three dusky while lunules. Hind wings with a large subtriangular spot on the disk, 

 occupying about half the surface, of the same blue colour as the fore wing. 



" Beneath, Fore wing has an orange-coloured spot similar to the one on the upper 

 side ; the apex is of a pale greenish gray ; the intermediate part of a dull black. 

 Hind wing: the base to nearly the middle orange, the outer edge of the patch deeply 

 sinuated in the middle. Rest of the wing pale greenish gray; a submarginal line, a 

 central strongly curved macular belt, interrupted at the first median nervule ; two 

 short ones across the disk, and two spots in the middle of the cell, black. Between 

 the central and submarginal belts is a row of seven large, equal, black ocelli, having 

 white pupils (double in the anal one) and shining blue irides. Body above rufous- 

 brown. AntenuEe black. The female is considerably larger and less brilliant in 

 colour, having also less blue colour on the disk of the hind wing. 



" I took four specimens of this distinct species, at Ega, one male and three 

 females. It is a very bold and rapid flyer, similar to the Preponae and the Apaturae of 

 the old world. It is attracted, as well as one of the following species, by the sugary 

 sap exuding from certain trees in the forest, where I have seen it feeding amongst a 

 group of Incas and Cetoniadae. 



