OCR Text |
Show 1881.] NOCTURNAL LEPIDOPTERA. 361 stout black terminal front spines; the palpi are stouter and have the terminal joint hairy ; the fore wing is less triangular in form, and the hind wing shorter than in typical Heliothis. For this species (incamata) I propose the generic name of Chazaria. The species described by Walker as H. lucilinea (Cat. Lep. Het. B. M . xv. p. 1749), from St. Domingo, is also generically distinct from the above; the Periphanes delphinii and Oria sanyuinea (a North-American species) have a very short stoutish tibia armed with two terminal stout spines, this character also occurring less stoutly in the European Antha?cia pulchra, A. cardui, A. cognata, A. cora, A. lynx (a North-American species), and in A. dorsilutea, the locality of which is unknown. L\ Melicleptria scutosa (Europe) and M. speciosa (N. America) the tibia is more slender and delicately spined than in Heliothis, the tarsus also being more delicate and comparatively longer. In AEdophron phleBophora and Stephania puniceago the terminal spines of the tibia are short, and the basal joint of the tarsus, also, is laterally spined. In this family (Heliothidae) should also be placed :-the American genus Derrima (D. stellata, Walk. Cat. Lep. Het. xh. p. 770, and D. henrietta, Grote), arranged hitherto in the Hamerosidae; the Anthophila lineata and A. divergens of Walker's Cat. xii. p. 830, of unknown locality and which are quite distinct from typical Anthophila; and the Microphysa contracta (Walker, Cat. Lep. Het. xii. p. 836), which is also generically distinct from Microphysa. The insect described as Chariclea taurica, and assigned to that genus in European catalogues, is quite distinct from typical Chariclea (Periphanes delphinii), differing from it in not possessing the tibial spines, and having, moreover, very short tarsi. It should be arranged with the Anthophilidae, under the generic name of Phila-reta ; in the Anthophilidae should also be placed the genus Pyrrhia (P. marginata and P. purpuritis),-these species agreeing better in their tibial and tarsal characters than with the Heliothidae. Genus HELIOTHIS, Hiibner. H E L I O T H I S PERIGEOIDES, n. sp. Male. Fore wing pale ochreous-yellow, crossed by two subbasal ochreous-brown pale-bordered zigzag lines; a median sinuous fascia, and a discal white-pointed sinuous line, bordered by an outer brownish waved fascia ; a pale-bordered orbicular and a reniform spot, the latter with grey centre; some whitish spots on the costal edge, and an outer marginal row of distinct black dots: hind wing ochreous-white, with an ochreous-brown marginal band enclosing a central white patch. Underside ochreous-white, with dusky-brown markings as in H. peltigera, but paler, and the discal fascia on both wings interrupted. Expanse 1 to lg inch. HaB. Kutch, N.W. India. In coll. F. Moore. Near to H. peltigera, which also occurs in Kutch, but is a much smaller and differently marked insect. PKOC. ZOOL. Soc-1881, No. XXIV. 24 |