1936 ] 
The Persius Group of Thanaos 
105 
view. West of the Mississippi river there may be addi- 
tional complications. There is a divergent looking form 
from Omaha, Nebraska (two specimens at hand) ; afranius 
shows some sign of complexity, that should be cleared up by 
more extensive rearing, and of the California material only 
that which could be placed in more eastern species has been 
analyzed. Lucilius and the Baptisia species appear to be 
absent from California, but there is a black species with the 
structure of afranius to complicate matters. True persius 
is more common in California than in the east, but has been 
generally mistaken there for afranius. 
The crux of the confusion has been the current mistaking 
of the Baptisia species for persius , which has generally gone 
unrecognized, or been determined erroneously as afranius, 
— and back of this confusion is the fact that true persius is 
relatively scarce from the east in collections, and perhaps 
the slight miscoloring of Scudder’s figure. Speaking gener- 
ally Scudder, Holland and the U. S. National Museum had 
persius correctly identified, while Skinner, Lindsey and the 
Barnes collection had the Baptisia species standing as per- 
sius, with possibly a few scattered eastern specimens of true 
persius, while the main series of persius were western speci- 
mens and stood as afranius. The true persius has excel- 
lent genitalic characters, and east of the Rocky Mountains 
may be distinguished by its coating of long scattered white 
hairs on the disc of the forewing. In Arizona all the group 
become heavily covered with white, but in California I be- 
lieve persius again is the only one with the white hairs. 
Thanaos persius Scudder 
1862. Nisoniades persius Scudder, Proc. Essex Inst, iii 
170. 
1870. Nisoniades persius Scudder & Burgess, Proc. Boston 
Soc. Nat. Hist, xiii, 286, fig. 1 (genitalia). 
1889. Thanaos persius Scudder, Butt. E. N. A. ii, 1468- 
1476, pi. ix, fig. 1, xxxvi, fig. 1-3, etc. (colored fig- 
ure perhaps contaminated with Baptisia species). 
1872. Nisoniades persius Lintner, 23rd Rept, N. Y. State 
Cab. Nat. Hist. 165 (note), pi. vii, figs. 3, 4 (Ent. 
Cont. p. 33). 
