Volume I Part 15 (1/2)

Wings uniform blueish-black, with a slender white margin. Head and top of the body bright red.

Hesp. Zeleucus. _Fab. Ent. Syst._ 3. _pt._ 1. _p._ 346. _no._ 317.

OBS. _Donovan's Indian Insects_, where that author has figured it by mistake as a native of India.

This insect is the most common (although hitherto unfigured) of a striking natural group belonging to the _Hesperidae_; it has therefore been selected as the best example for the genus I have now formed them into. I have not seen more than twelve or fourteen species, and these were all from different parts of South America, to which I have no doubt the genus is exclusively confined. The club of their antennae is very thick, obtuse, and without any terminal hook. The bright red at the end of the abdomen (improperly called by Fabricius the tail) is most conspicuous in the female, which is also larger and having the wings more obtuse, of which the upper and under surfaces are both alike.

The insects of this family fly with amazing rapidity (as is shown by the thickness of their thorax, and the sharpness in the make of their wings), generally frequenting openings of thick woods and alighting on leaves where the sun strikes: I seldom saw them on flowers. Their wings when at rest are half expanded in a horizontal direction. Their metamorphosis is unknown.

This individual species is scarce in the northern parts of Brazil, but common in the southern provinces.

Pl. 34

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COLIAS G.o.dartiana.

_G.o.dart's Colias._

GENERIC CHARACTER.--See Pl. 5.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

_C. (Foem.) alis flavescente-fulvis, anticis supra margine punctoque rotundato medio nigris, subtus argenteo rufo 3-fisso, posticis subtus puncto gemino argenteo margine nigro, uno quadrato; palpis productis._

(Female) Wings fulvous-yellow; anterior above with the outer margin and round central spot black, which beneath is silvery rufous and three-cleft; posterior beneath each with two silvery spots margined with black, one of which is quadrangular. Palpi lengthened.

An inspection of a vast number of insects of this genus, with the possession of nearly all the species noticed by authors, convinces me that the insect now figured is perfectly distinct from any other. It is in the cabinet of Mr. Haworth, who obligingly lent it me for comparison and description, and is the only individual I have hitherto met with. The prolongation of the palpi, which is even more obvious than in _C. Statira_, is alone a specific distinction; and the form of the spots both on the upper and under side differs very much in character from that insect, with which it has the most affinity. It may be the _Papilio Drya_ of Fabr.

(omitting his references); but his description, whether intended for this insect or any other, is so vague that I can see no advantage in retaining it. Of the two bright silver spots beneath, one is oval, the other larger and quadrangular.

I have named it in honour of M. G.o.dart, the intelligent coadjutor of M.

Latreille in the entomological part of the _Encyclopedie Methodique_.

Pl. 35

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