418 
AMASTUS. By Dr. A. Seitz. 
Hemihyalea, also the Amastus are rather uniformly built imagines with mostly very plain colouring and marking 
and are for this reason also very difficult to ascertain. Although great numbers of specimens from this genus 
were brought to Europe by Briceno from Venezuela, by Garlepp from Peru, and by Fassl from Colombia, 
yet this material only refers to but few species, and about many others there still prevails a certain haziness. 
— As the essential mark of distinction of the genus we may mention the mostly very large male genitals by 
which they approximate the Hemihyalea, and the frequently extraordinarily long antennae resembling those 
of the Opharus. \ The abdomen almost invariably shows a distinct premonitory colour being orange-red or 
crimson and is often laterally decorated with rows of variegated rings, frequently also the clasping-organ projects 
distinctly at the end of the abdomen and is separated from the coloured part of the abdomen by scaleless cliitinous 
plates. As to the habits and early stages nothing has become known to me except that the imagines come to 
the lantern in the evening, sometimes on certain swarming evenings in great numbers and often rather late. 
albipunda. A. albipunda Hmps. (47 a) is one of the most beautiful species with dark brown, blackish-banded forewings 
recognizable by the red-marked head and collar, and snow-white dots on the frons, dorsum, thoracal and 
abdominal sides; abdomen purple orange. From Venezuela to Peru and Bolivia. The figured specimen from 
the Rio Songo. 
suffusa. A. suffusa H.-Schaff. is quite similarly coloured as albipunda, but instead of the dark bands of the 
forewing there are whitish, often double chains of crescents, and the mesothorax is vermilion. In typical suffusa, 
as Herrich-Schaeffer figures it from Venezuela, the head and thorax are in front dark brown; -—- in the 
orosiana. form orosiana form., nov. (47 e) of which numbers are before me from the Volcano of Irazu in Costa Rica, the 
head and prothorax are yellowish-grey, with an orange, black-edged collar-marking on the tegulae and patagia; 
the subterminal chain of small crescents on the forewing is somewhat more irregular, since the small luna between 
hampsoni. the upper radial branches projects farther towards the base. — In a third, very similar form, hampsoni Rothsch., 
from Paramba in Ecuador, the subterminal chain of small lunae is as in orosiana, but the wings exhibit brighter 
colours and markings, the thorax has a dark brown ground-colour, and the abdominal dorsum is of a deep 
hemochrome. — Apparently not rare. 
affinis. A. affinis Rothsch. (48 a) from Ecuador and Peru is quite similar to suffusa, chiefly different by the 
subterminal line not being deeply dentate, but only slightly undulate and separating a bright red-brown marginal 
band from the grey, brown-banded ground of the wing. 
formosana. A. formosana Schs. from El Saltadilla in Argentina has the size of suffusa orosiana (47 e), in the 
forewing the dark transverse bands are so broad that they are confluent at the costa and proximal margin 
and leave only two bands of the ground-colour between them, the proximal one of which is band-shaped before 
the middle, the distal one Y-shaped behind the middle; the latter is confluent with the subterminal chain of 
small lunae behind the cell-end. The type is in the National Museum at Washington; I know the species only 
from Hampson’s figure which was made according to a somewhat rough draft. 
ambrosia. A. ambrosia Drc. (47 a) is dull earth-coloured brown with almost yellow hindwings and a crimson 
abdomen. The forewing is not banded, but coarsely striated, only before the distal margin there is a dentate 
transverse stripe separating the lighter reddish marginal part from the darker disc. Colombia to Ecuador. 
thermidora. A. therniidora Dgn. is one of the largest species with very broad, dark red-brown forewings crossed 
by 3 narrow transverse bands: a subbasal arcuate one, a median dentate band across the cell-end, and a sharply 
dentate antemarginal band; the dark hindwing exhibits light antemarginal crescents. From Loja in Ecuador. — 
A similarly marked form, though with narrower wings and a light striated ground-colour was captured 
peralta. by A. H. Fassl on Mt. Tolima in Colombia, at an altitude of 3200 nr; I denominate it peralta form. nov. (47 a). 
volcandta. A. volcancita Dgn. (48 a), founded upon a $ from the Quindiu Pass, which was likewise captured 
by A. H. Fassl, is very closely allied to the preceding, particularly to the form peralta ; but the forewing is 
so much intermixed with light, striae that the transverse bands disappear, except faint traces, and only round 
the cell-end there is a broad light spot. 
mesorhoda. A. mesorhoda WJcr. (47 b) is like the preceding similar to ambrosia Drc., but the sheulder-covers are 
proximally edged with white, the abdomen is blackish-brown beginning from the 4th ring. The forewing is 
more equably blackish-brown with a red-brown marginal part being defined by a regular arcuate line; hindwing 
darkened, margined with yellowish. Colombia. 
phaeosoma. A. phaeosoma Hmps. (47 b) is very similar to mesorhoda, but the forewing is more intensely striated 
light, the marginal area is not so light red-brown, and the abdomen is uniformly greyish-brown, only very feebly 
tinted red-brown. 
erebella. A. erebella Mssn. (47 a) is smaller than the preceding; forewing sepia-brown, in the disc somewhat 
diaphanous, feebly intermixed with yellowish-brown striae. Abdomen and thorax dark red-brown, towards 
