YUCCA MOTH AND YUCCA POLLINATION. 151 
PRODOXUS Y-INVERSUS, N. sp. 
[Pl. 43, Fig. 5.] 
Specimens of both sexes of this species were reared from 
parts of a pod of an unknown species of Yucca (but doubt- 
less Y. baccata) received from Mr. D. C. Chapman, of 
Washington, D. C., who had obtained them in May, 1883, 
from New Mexico, the moths issuing during May of the 
following year. The larve infest the fleshy portions of 
the pod and produce hard, gall-like swellings. The cocoon, 
which, as with the other species, is constructed within the 
burrow, is pale brownish, and resembles an elongate, cylin- 
drical bag, rounded at the base and cylindrical at the apex. 
When ready to transform, the larva retires to the lower third 
of the bag and separates it from the upper two-thirds by a 
dense, tough, delicate whitish layer of silk, thus dividing 
the cocoon into two unequal chambers. No larve were 
preserved, but those which were noticed in cutting open the 
swellings showed a remarkable resemblance to those of 
decipiens. ‘The chrysalis also has not been studied. 
IMaGco.— 9. Average expanse 14 mm. 10-12 mm. General color 
white. Head, thorax, legs and abdomen white beneath, the hairs 
between the antennx occasionally yellowish. Eyes black; palpi white; 
tip of labials yellowish; tongue pale yellowish. Primaries (Fig. 5, a) 
marked with black as follows—a costal streak along the basal half, 
widening posteriorly and more or less completely fused with a round spot 
near its end. An elliptical or roundish spot about the middle of the 
wing at the basal third; a more or less sharply defined inverted-Y-shaped 
band across the posterior third of the wing, with its exterior arm 
generally connected posteriorly with a black patch which extends 
along the posterior border but is more or less broken at the extreme 
border and also along its inner margin. This terminal dark patch 
usually broadens toward the apex and is sharply cut off on the costa at 
about the outer fourth of the wing. Secondaries pale yellowish, darkest 
at apex; fringes concolorous. Undersurfaces with the dark markings of 
the primaries less sharply defined. Abdomen, brownish above, the 
‘male claspers (Fig. 5, 6, c), yellowish-brown, almost bare, quite slender, 
and gradually narrowing toward the tip, which is almost acute; each 
arm is provided with 5 or 6 very small, cylindrical, acute teeth at the 
posterior edge; basal lobes are almost circular and concave at the 
inner side; upper basal plate triangular. Anal segment of the female 
obliquely truncate from above, but slightly so beneath, the ovipositor 
stout, yellowish-brown, its terminal part slender, compressed laterally, 
the upper edge of the apex being finely and acutely serrate. (Fig. 5,d, e.) 
Described from four males and seven females, no two of 
which are exactly alike in the marginal details of the 
inverse Y-shaped band, nor in those of the terminal patch. 
