94 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST, 



DESCRIPTION OF THE GOPHER MOTH. 



BY J. B. SMITH, SC.D., RUTGERS COLLEGE, NEW BRUNSWICK, N. J. 



Epizeuxis gopheri, n. sp. 



Ground colour a very pale mouse-gray, the wings with the appearance 

 of being thinly scaled. On the thorax is a slightly warmer, more brown 

 or reddish tinge, while the under side is darker and somewhat more 

 smoky throughout. Primaries with all the lines diffuse and vague, 

 except the s. t., which is distinct and very sharply dentated. The basal 

 line is wanting. The t. a. line is pale, without defined margins, and 

 crosses the wings with scarcely an out-curve. The t. p. line is yet more 

 feebly marked except on the costa, and crosses the wing with a feeble out- 

 curve, a little more marked than the outer margin of the wing itself. In 

 the male this line seems to be better defined than in the female. The s. 

 t. line is whitish, distinct, and irregularly toothed in both directions ; 

 that is, inwardly as well as outwardly — as a whole keeping at about the 

 same distance from the outer margin throughout. The ordinary spots 

 are very feebly marked ; the orbicular a faint yellowish dot, and the 

 reniform a somewhat larger blotch of the same colour ; but in both cases 

 indefinite. The secondaries are distinctly paler, more washed out and 

 becoming almost whitish at the base. Toward the outer margin they are 

 more nearly of the ground colour of the primaries, and here a pale, 

 dentate, submarginal line becomes visible ; much less defined, however, 

 than the s. t. line of the primaries. On the under side the fore wings are 

 uniformly smoky gray, without the glossy appearance of the upper side. 

 The hind wings are much paler toward the base, and near the outer 

 margin a faint reproduction of the line on the upper surface is noticeable. 



Expands 1.12 to 1.20 inches = 28 to 30 mm. 



Habitat. — In Florida ; discovered by the late Mr. H. G. Hubbard, 

 in the burrows of the land tortoise ( Gophertis polyphetnus). 



One pair is before me ; both specimens received from Mr. Hubbard' 

 The male is somewhat crippled and in unsatisfactory condition, though 

 all parts are present ; but the female is in very fair shape and has all the 

 characteristic features well marked. The species differs at once from all 

 the other members of the genus by the strongly pectinate antennae of the 

 male. In no other of the species have we more than a strong serration, 

 and by this one character the species can be easily distinguished. In, 

 other respects it bears a curiously close resemblance to that western form 

 of the common lubricalis which I have named occidentalis. With the 



