CLASSIFICATION OF THE ASCALAl'IIIDJE. 



273 



Westwood's type is a 5 . A 6 in the British Museum is much 

 smaller (exp. alar, antic. 13"'), in fact the least of all the Ascala- 

 phida) ; the posterior wings have the basal third opaque white, 

 showing the affinity of the genus to Ascalaphus (restricted). 



G-enus Ascalaphus, Fab. (restricted). 



Wings subtriangular, with yellow or white and black (often opaque) 

 markings ; costal margin dilated at the base, afterwards con- 

 stricted ; network very close : transverse branch of lower 

 cubitus running obliquely into the inner margin, after the ter- 

 mination of the postcosta, in all the wings. 



Antenna strong, as long as the wings (or slightly longer or 

 shorter), without hairs at the base ; somewhat arcuate at the 

 base, especially in the S : club short and broad, almost trun- 

 cate : a dense tuft of hairs between the antenna? and on the 

 face. 



Eyes having the superior division much larger than the inferior. 

 Thorax villose. 



Abdomen short and densely villose, obese in the $ ; in the <3 with 

 a pair of slender, cylindrical, forcipate terminal appendices. 



Legs very short, with the spurs of the posterior tibiae scarcely so 

 long as the first tarsal joint. 



Hab. Mediterranean district; extending into Central Europe 

 and Siberia. 



The striking and papilioniform species of this genus are familiar 

 to every entomologist. 



Species. 



I content myself here by enumerating the species according to 

 Hagen's list in the 1 Stettiner entomolog. Zeitung ' for 1860, 

 pp. 47, 48, without reproducing the complicated synonymy he 

 there elucidates, and which I have not yet tested. However, 1 

 have united corsicus and siculus of Rambur, not being able to find 

 any character whatever, after an examination of the type speci- 

 mens, by which to distinguish them. The species appear to se- 

 parate themselves into two ill-defined groups, characterized by 

 the presence or absence of opaque coloration of the wings : many 

 of them are closely related one to another, and seem to thoroughly 

 confirm my opinion expressed in the introductory portion of this 

 paper, that local influences tend to produce modifications or " local 

 species" in the Ascalaphida\ 



