Scndder.] 286 [April 27, 



We have not hesitated to give names to the species described be- 

 low for the first time, because the parts to which we have confined 

 the descriptions are, certainly, in this sombre genus, the most charac- 

 teristic; we believe that only those who confine their descriptions to 

 the coloration of the wings will blame us ; to them we would say that 

 these descriptions are no more partial than their own, and are based 

 upon features which admit of a better definition. 1 In assigning 

 names we have followed the lead of earlier authors in recalling the 

 Roman poets and satirists. 



GROUP I. 



Upper organ: crest wanting; terminal hooks separate, slender; 

 tooth reduced to a tubercle and bristle. Clasps: blades slender; 

 basal process unarmed. 

 Nisoniades Persius Scudder. Fig. 1. 



Upper organ : Main body short, slender, high. Hooks very long 

 and slender, tapering, slightly compressed, separate at base, basal 

 halves divaricate, but beyond subparallel, curving inequally, the tip 

 hooked downward, tapering rapidly and sharply pointed; from the 

 middle of the ridge which unites their bases, a very minute denticle 

 depends with a projecting bristle. Arms broad at their origin, made 

 one half as small below by an excision of the posterior edge, directed 

 downward and slightly forward, then bent at about a right angle 

 backward, and very soon expanded to a common, very large, spatu- 

 late cup, opening upward, its outer half composing the inferior arma- 

 ture of delicate points, widely separate from the base of the terminal 

 hooks. 



Left clasp : Main body nearly triangular — the apex at the point of 

 attachment — widening rapidly, a little curved longitudinally and 

 slightly gibbous laterally. Blade very long and slender, the basal 

 fourth rapidly narrowing, beyond nearly equal, depressed, curving 

 inward, at first slightly, afterwards rapidly, so as to be subfalcate; 

 otherwise nearly straight; tip produced to a sharp point; basal proc- 

 ess consisting of a gibbous subreniform lobe, not half as long as the 

 blade, constricted at the base, having a general backward direction, 

 curved a little inward, its upper margin strongly arched, its lower 

 excised, rounded at the tip, the basal portion of its lower margin bent 

 inwards and forming a slight, sharp, inconspicuous ridge. Lobe large, 



1 Wherever possible, a large series of specimens has been examined, and we have 

 found the amount of individual variation very small. 



