OCR Text |
Show 84 DR. W. J. HOLLAND ON THE AFRICAN [Jan. 14, that the neuration is quite peculiar, and that Mons. Mabille, the author of the genus, was abundantly justified by the facts in erecting it for the reception of the typical species. GAMIA, gen. nov. Antenna; long, slender; club robust, tapering gradually, produced at the apical extremity to a fine point, which is slightly recurved. Palpi: first joint short; second joint long, both heavily clothed with hair; the third joint long, produced and conical, almost naked ; the hind tibiae with a double pair of spurs, and heavily clothed with long hair. Fore wing: inner margin longer than outer margin ; the costa evenly rounded ; the apex obtuse : the outer margin slightly excavated above the outer angle; cell more than two-thirds the length of costa; vein 12 reaches the costa before the end of the cell; vein 5 very slightly nearer vein 4 than vein 6; vein 7 from the end of the cell, very near vein 6; vein 3 very near vein 4, from near the lower angle of the cell; Antennae and palpi of Gamia galua, Holl. f. vein 2 from one-third of the distance from the base to vein 3. Secondaries : costal and outer margins evenly rounded, produced at the anal angle and slightly truncated at anal angle; vein 5 present and distinct; vein 4 from the lower angle of the cell; vein 3 slightly before the loAver angle ; vein 2 twice as far from vein 3 as the latter is from vein 4 ; vein 7 from about the middle of the cell.-The insects belonging to this genus are large in size, dark in colour, with the primaries and secondaries ornamented with large translucent yellow spots. G. buchholzi is the largest of all the African Hesperiida?, with the exception of Rhopolocampta iihis. They are distinctly separate from the genus Ccenides, to which they are apparently allied by the peculiar form of the palpi. Type G. galua, Holl. 284. G. GALUA, Holl. (Plate I. fig. 1, $ .) Proteides galua, Holl. Ent. News, vol. ii. p. 3 (1891). Hesperia zintgraffi, Karsch, Ent. Nachr. vol. xviii. p. 178 (1892). ? Proteides ditissimus, Mab. C. R. Soc. Ent. Belg. vol. xxxv. p. cxii (1891). Hab. Tropical West Africa. A comparison of m y species with the type of H. zintgraffi, Karsch, shows the two to be identical. I a m also strongly inclined to the opinion that P. ditissimus, Mab., is the same insect. Unfortunately I have not seen the type of P. ditissimus. Mons. Mabille affirmed the identity of the two species when examining m y type, but has since expressed in letters a different opinion. |