Elleiua. Clemens. 



Head small and somewhat depressed, but not sunken 

 as in Smerinihus, which this genus approaches in its Bombyci- 

 form look; the wings however are entire, Sphingiform ; the 

 tongue is short and membranous, but it differs in the young 

 stages by having no caudal horn and the head not being heart- 

 shaped ; according to Fernald "the young larva has a round 

 head (of coniferarum} but it changes at the first moult to 

 an angular form running up to a sharp point at top." In 

 ornamentation this genus differs by the immaculate abdomen, 

 also a Smerinthoid character, but the pattern of primaries 

 is like the ensueing Spliinginae, having longitudinal streaks 

 on the interspaces. We may say that the wings are those 

 of a Splrinsc, the body of a Smerintlius. A letter from Dr. 

 Clemens, dated in 1865, and explaining his reasons for des- 

 cribing this genus, is before me as I now write. From the 

 first, I have kept EUema, as a genus, distinct. From the 

 habit of the larva and its feeding on Pines, it has always 

 been approached to Hyloiciis, but the immaculate abdomen 

 at once excludes it, no less than the short maxillae. It is 

 now referred to the Smerintlrinae by Fernald, but the larva 

 does not seem to me to be that of a Smerinthoid form. I 

 regret not to have material now before me and I am writing 

 from old notes on the species, which I have seen, all but 

 bombycoides (this from a figure). It struck me that they 

 were very near and possibly only variations of a single form, 

 the coniferarum of Abbot a. Smith. Prof. Fernald, apparently 

 on Mr. Thaxter's authority (a most excellent one), considers 

 bombycoides and Harris! i- as forms of one species. Prof. 

 Fernald further distinguishes coniferarum, while he does not 

 allude to pinemn of Lintner, a New York species, but, if 

 valid, certainly not confined to New York, which State be- 

 longs to southern New England so far as the Lepidopterous 

 fauna is concerned, its northeastern portion, in its fauna, 

 to Eastern Canada. This genus is evidently of wide distri- 

 . bution and distinctively North American. For the present 

 I leave further discussion of the species. The genus itself 

 might inaugurate the present group if my arrangement of 



