OCR Text |
Show 1896.] BUTTERFLIES OF T H E FAMILY HESPERIID^. 45 142. R. GALATIA, Hew. (Plate III. figs. 8 $, 15 3.) Hesperia galatia, Hew. Descript. Hesper. p. 36 (1868). Pamphila rhabdophorus, Mab. Bull. Soc. Ent. France, (6) vol. ix. p. cxlix (1889). Dimorphic var. R. sosia, Mab. Pamphila sosia, Mab. C. R. Soc. Ent. Belg. 1891, p. clxxi. Hab. Old Calabar (Heivitson) ; Gaboon (Good) ; Mozambique (Mabille). I have an enormous series of specimens of this insect, both males and females. It is absolutely impossible to distinguish between the females of R. galatia and R. sosia. Sosia merely differs from galatia in being without the raised velvety brand of scales upon the primaries below the end of the cell. Some vestiges of this sexual mark, however, appear in a few specimens. I am perfectly convinced that the insects do not specifically differ from each other, and that we are simply dealing here with dimorphism affecting the sexual stigmata of the male sex. This is a singular fact, and, so far as my observation extends, hitherto unobserved. PAROSMODES, gen. nov. Closely allied to the genus Osmodes, from which it differs in the form of the palpi, the third joint of which is long and porrect, whereas in typical Osmodes the third joint is short and suberect. The antennae are moderately long, exceeding the middle of the costa. The neuration of the primaries and the secondaries is as in Osmodes, and there is likewise at the origin of veins 2 and 3 of the secondaries a raised patch of scales as in Osmodes. The primaries, as in the latter genus, have also a long tuft of hairs about the middle of the hind margin ; these hairs are ordinarily folded forward against the under surface of the primaries as in Osmodes. Type P. morantii, Trim. 143. P. MORANTII, Trim. Pamphila morantii, Trim. Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. 1873, p. 122. Pamphila ranoha, Westw. App. Oates's Matabeleland, p. 353 (1881). Pamphila morantii, Trim. S. Afr. Butt. vol. iii. p. 311, pi. xii. fig. 3 (1889). Osmodes ranoha, Butl. P. Z. S. 1893, p. 670. Hab. South Africa and South Tropical Africa. 144. P. ICTERIA, Mab. Pamphila icteria, Mab. C. R. Soc. Ent. Belg. vol. xxxv. p. clxxx (1821). Pamphila zimbaso, Trim. P. Z. S. 1894, p. 74, pi. vi. fig. 17 2 • Hab. Manica-land (Trimen) ; Transvaal (Mabille). |