MESOSEMIA. By Dr. A. Seitz. 647 



M. machaera Heiv. (126 c). Velvety blackish brown, the eye-spot encircled by a brownish yellow; machaera. 

 forewings with a curved transverse band being distally of a purely white colour, proximally dim. The di.stal 

 part of the hindwings is white, separated from the black basal part by 3 transverse lines being almost quite 

 straight. Teffe on the Amazon. The white band of the forewing may grow very broad, so in Peru-specimens. — 

 In modulata Stick., likewise from Peru, it is said to be narrower, and along the border of the hindwing there modulaia. 

 extends a marginal shade being interrupted in the middle, as well as a submarginal line; in such forms, incomplete 

 lines proceeding from the anal angle may run into the white of the hindwing, whereby a resemblance is created 

 ^^-ith zonalis, thymetus, isshia etc. Such a specimen resembling (the larger) zonalis with a dark border of the 

 hindwing is figured 126 c by the erroneous nanie of thymetina. The species is widely distributed in the western 

 part of South America, but by no means common. 



M. zonalis G. and S. (126 c). The type has great resemblance with certain forms of machaera. Pro- zonalis. 

 bably the 5 figured by the authors belongs to another (smaller) race than the figured ^. The very numerous 

 transverse lines of the hindwing may be quite straight, but also somewhat sinuous. Central America and Co- 

 lombia. 



M. magete Hew. (126 c). Lighter brown in the ground-colour than machaera, but the cj darker than magete. 

 zonalis; the white distal area of the hindwing with a broad brown border in which an oval spot, above the middle 

 of the border, remains white. The hindwing is quite slightly angled at the border. In most of the ^^, in the 

 anal angle of the hindwings, there is the beginning of a line parting the white marginal area; in bersabana SticJi. ber.sahana. 

 this line is continued as far as to the apex; then the white marginal spot of the hindwing is also mostly (but 

 not always) distally finely bordered in dark. The latter form preferably flies in Guiana, where, however, 

 there also fly typically coloured, though smaller magete, as described from the Amazon. Seems to be very com- 

 mon. — A very curious specimen lies before me from Fassl's collection, from Villavicencio ; here the broad 

 black marginal band of the hindwing extends only as far as to the middle of the border; the Avhite marginal 

 spot is, therefore, not bordered and merges into the broad white band; also the apex of the hindwing 

 is white so that the costal haK of the hindwing, from the border to the middle of the wing, is of a quite pure 

 white, the posterior half of the wing however, being margined in dark. 



M. gertraudis Stich. (142 b). Hereto belong specimens being similarly marked as zonalis, with a geriraudis. 

 blue instead of brown ground-colour of the upper surface. In the type figured by the author the transverse 

 stripes run rectilinearly and regularly, and the white and blue band of the forewing is steeper; from Peru. 

 We figure a deviating specimen from the Rio Negro (Colombia), in which the transverse lines are very much 

 undulated. 



X. Group, (i/ij/metos- Group.) 



(J and $ brown with a white transverse band. 



M. sifia Bsd. This is the well-known Rio-butterfly being wide-spread in collections, exhibiting on siiia. 

 both wdngs a central eye-spot, in the forewing a curved white band, in the hindwing a white-intermixed distal 

 half which in isshia from the Amazon is very much traversed by dark and bordered in dark. Whether sifia isshia. 

 is specifically to be separated from its vicarious forms which are almost all marked in blackish brown with 

 a common white band and a very dark-ruled ground, we cannot decide for the present. About 30 more 

 roughly and about 60 more finely distinguishable forms are known and have mostly been denominated. But 

 siiice, for instance, the sifia from the south of the town of Rio (Corcovado) already deviates from the one bemg 

 met in the north on an excursion to the Organ Mountains, there would be no end, if we were to denominate 

 all the differences in size, the width of the bands, the course and number of the transverse liires. — thymetus thymctits. 

 Cr. is a rather small form with a medium-broad band traversing all the wings and rather distmct transverse 

 lines before the band of the hindwing. It originates from Guiana ; but in the museums there are mostly narrower 

 banded specimens from Colombia or the Amazon. Stichel figures one of these forms as amaranthus; it cer- 

 tainly is not worth being denominated, unless all the numerous deviations of the bands, characteristic for every 

 habitat, would be denominated. Also whether the ring round the eye-spot is elliptic (closed) or parabolically 

 open, is sometimes of no account, as is proved by couples met with in copulation *). In anceps Stick., a smaller aneeps. 

 species (from Ecuador), the latter disappear altogether, as in the battis-^ of messeis to which the latter species 

 is perhaps allied. Of the larger forms one with the band of the hindwing being covered with brown — tene- hnebricosa. 

 bricosa Hew. (126 d as hedwigi) to which anica Drc. only forms a transition with a half-covered band — has 

 been described before; the forms with a purely white band of the hindwing of Avhich more than 40 lie before 

 me, belong to the few common Erycinidae at their habitats. The white band lasij be posteriorly pointed 

 (dryadella Stich., nerine Stick.) or broad (judicialis Stick.), or even very broad {latissima Stick.), sometimes 

 the band of the hindwing is also parted by a nebulous line, only in the anal part {sirenia Stick.) or in its 



*) The figiire on t. 126 d depicted by us as „amaranthus" is erroneous. An exaixdnation of the tj'pe of ainaran- 

 thus Stich. having been subsequently made in the Berlin Museum proved that the specimen there is nothing but a nai-row- 

 banded form of this species from Peru, often found in the collections as thymetus. Quite similar forms are also from Co- 

 lombia. 



