URBICOLÆ—ASTYCI.
PAMPHILITES Scudder.
This genus belongs to the Astyci and falls in the neighborhood of Pansydia and Carystus, if we take as an illustration of the latter group the Hesperia Lucasii of Fabricius. The former genus has a male with a discal dash, the latter without one. As the fossil species is represented by a single fore wing of what is probably a female, it is impossible to say into which category it would fall. The costal border ([Pl. III], fig. 18) is almost exactly straight throughout; next the base, however, it is arched a little and it slopes slightly downward on the apical fifth to a rather sharply defined apex; the outer margin is gently and almost regularly convex, but with its greatest convexity a little above the middle, and at its upper end is at right angles to the tip of the costal margin; the lower angle is rounded off and the inner margin is slightly sinuous, being hollowed in the middle; the wing is slightly more than twice as long as broad. In all these respects it agrees far better with Pansydia ([Pl. III], fig. 15) than with Carystus ([Pl. III], fig. 13). Indeed, excepting in the greater length of the wing and the lack of any change of direction in the outer border at the tip of the lowest median nervule, the form of the wing scarcely differs from that of Pansydia Mesogramma.
In neuration it agrees better with Pansydia than with Carystus. Poey’s figure, which for want of better material I have been forced to copy in illustration, is not executed with sufficient care, for of the first and second superior subcostal nervules he has made but one. The principal difference between Pansydia and the fossil genus is in the fourth superior subcostal nervule; in Pansydia this terminates upon the costal border just before the apex of the wing, while in Pamphilites it terminates on the outer border just below the apex of the wing, bringing the latter into a different interspace in the two genera. From Carystus it differs, not only in having a proportionally shorter cell, but in the same point as that in which it is distinguishable from Pansydia; and further in the uppermost median nervule, which in Carystus is thrown off abruptly from the nervure just beyond its second divarication and which, by curving strongly, makes the upper median interspace of nearly equal width throughout; while in Pamphilites, the nervule parts gently from the nervure like the others, and at some distance beyond its second divarication, passing in a regular curved line to the outer border, and causing the upper median interspace to increase in breadth throughout the whole of its basal half.
In the disposition of its spots, Pamphilites ([Pl. III], figs. 14, 17) agrees perhaps better with Carystus ([Pl. III], fig. 19) than with Pansydia ([Pl. III], fig. 15). This is especially true of the large spots in the cell and in the lower two median interspaces; although in Carystus the spots of the median interspaces are further removed from the base than in Pamphilites, while the opposite is true of the spot surmounting the submedian nervure; the submarginal spots beyond the cell of Pamphilites are wanting in Carystus, and the latter genus has but two of the three subcostal spots of Pamphilites. The spots of Pansydia are smaller and far less conspicuous than in Pamphilites, that of the cell being reduced almost to a dot; the median spots are however large, though removed farther from the base, as in Carystus; there is also a small spot in the upper median interspace, but further from the margin than in Pamphilites and unaccompanied by any spot in the interspace beyond the cell; as in Carystus, the spot surmounting the submedian nervure is further from the outer margin than in Pamphilites, but the subcostal spots accord very well with those of the fossil.
By these considerations it would appear that Pansydia is to be placed between Carystus and Pamphilites, the latter being more nearly related to Pansydia than to Carystus, leading us to believe it more probable that we are dealing with a female, whose partner was possessed of the ornament of a discal dash of specialized scales. The species of Pansydia are smaller than those of most of the neighboring genera, but Pamphilites abdita is somewhat smaller even than Pansydia mesogramma.
PAMPHILITES ABDITA Scudder.
[Pl. III], figs. 14, 17, 18.
Upon a dark, uniform, probably blackish brown ground, the fore wing of this butterfly was provided (in the female?) with three large spots, three small spots, and two dots of a vitreous appearance, besides other light streaks or powdery spots. The three large spots are probably peculiar, in their present extent, to the female; they consist ([Pl. III], figs. 14, 17,) of one spot in the cell and one in each of the lower median interspaces; the cellular spot crosses the cell, is sublunato-quadrate, its exterior edge concave, extending from the origin of the third superior subcostal nervule to just beyond the second divarication of the median nervure, being directed in the upper half of its course toward the base of the second median nervule; the spot is narrower above than below, the upper half having an outward as well as upward inclination, the lower margin straight, the interior margin subsinuate, convex, reaching from midway between the base of the first and second superior subcostal nervules to just beyond the middle of the space between the base of the first and second median nervules. The spot in the lowest median interspace is nearly or quite as large as the previous, but longitudinal instead of transverse, and as broad as the interspace; excepting for a little spur above on the inner side, which runs a little way toward the base, the centre of the spot would lie just below the second divarication of the median nervure, but by means of this slight spur the spot extends baseward half way from the second to the first divarication of the median nervure; at the outer extremity the spot terminates squarely and next the lowest median nervule is two-sevenths the length of that vein. The spot in the middle median interspace is much smaller, subtriangular, filling the whole breadth of the interspace, half as long again as broad, its inner tapering extremity situated just below the final divarication of the median nervure. The three small spots in the lower three subcostal nervules are seated one above the other, their inner margins on a line and nearly at right angles to the costal margin; they are quadrate and increase slightly in size below, the upper one being square, the lower longitudinally oblong; they are situated midway between the discoidal spot and the apex of the wing. The two dots are situated one just above the other in the middle of the upper median and subcosto-median interspaces, midway between the spot in the lower subcostal interspace and the outer border; the lower is slightly the larger, but not more than one-fourth the size of the uppermost subcostal spot. Seated upon the submedian nervure, its centre below the outer edge of the lower median spot, is a pale, powdery spot, twice as long as broad and about one-third the width of the interspace; outwardly it merges into the ground color; there are other pale spaces in the wing, looking somewhat as if due to attrition; especially in the cell on either side of the discoidal spot, at the extreme base of the lower median interspace, and along the lower border of the medio-submedian interspace. Length of wing, 15·75mm., length of inner border, 9·5mm.; breadth of wing across the middle, 7·25mm., breadth of wing across outer margin, 9·5mm..
Tertiaries of Aix, Provence, France. Museum of the City of Marseilles.