CLASSIFICATION OF T11E ASCALAPII IBM. 



271 



A note, in the handwriting of M. Guienzius, attached to an 

 example from Natal in the British Museum, gives the following 

 information respecting the habits of the species ; — " Hides by day 

 ' in the fissures of the bark of old trees, with the body curved up- 

 wards ; difficult to find. In the morning and evening twilight it 

 chases insects, dragonfly-like, around branches of trees." 



Genus Helcopteryx, n. g. 



(Bubo, part., Ramb., Hag.) 



Wing a elongate, rather narrow towards the base, the extreme base 

 of the inner margin with a small excision followed by a slight 

 dilatation, but not appendiculate ; network dense ; branch of 

 the lower cubitus confluent with the postcosta in the posterior 

 wings. 



Antenncs considerably shorter than the wings, straight, the base 

 furnished with verticillate hairs ; club nearly roundly capitate ; 

 a dense tuft of hairs on the face and between the antennae. 



Eyes small ; the divisions nearly equal. 



Thorax robust, villose, especially on the breast. 



Abdomen of the <5 slender, as long as the anterior wings, the 

 three terminal segments furnished with a narrow wing-like di- 

 latation of the lateral margins, gradually becoming broader to 

 the apex, which is furnished with short, straight and cylindri- 

 cal divergent appendices ; the second segment is dilated above 

 into a hump posteriorly, giving the abdomen the appearance 

 of being geniculate. In the $ the abdomen is simple, rather 

 obese, excepting at the apex. 



Legs with the spurs of the posterior tibiae about the length of 

 the first two tarsal joints. 



Hab. South Africa. 



Species. 



1. H. rhodiogramm a, Rambur. (Bubo rhodiogrammus, Ramb. 



Nevrop. p. 355) 

 Hab. Cape of Good Hope ; Natal. 



Rambur's description is sufficiently precise, only that his type 

 was a female. In the 6 I do not see the " taches en forme de fer- 

 a-cheval, d'un noir veloute " of which he speaks. The <$ abdo- 

 men in two examples in my collection is uniformly fuscous, some- 

 what reddish above towards the base, and with a tendency to be- 

 come pruinose beneath ; the hump on the second segment is 



