OP WASHINGTON, VOLUME XII, 1910. 79 



Megalopyge aricia Schaus. 



Megalopyge aricia Schaus, Trans. Am. Ent. Soc., xxx, 1:5!), 1904. 



Described from Aroa, Venezuela. Two males are before 

 me, which look as if they might belong to uiidithita. If it 

 were not for the different localities I should so refer them, but 

 with only males of aricia and only a female of niidn/ata, I 

 must wait for further information. 



Megalopyge chrysocoma Herrich-Schaeffer. 



Chrysopyga chrysocoma Herrich-Schaeffer, Aussereuerop,Schmett., 



fig. o76, 1855. 

 Chrysopyga pelhicida Moschler, Verh. zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, xxvii, 



67, 1877. 



Prismoptera trossula Dognin, Le Naturaliste, xiii, 126, 1891. 

 Prismoptera trossula Kirby, Cat. Lep. Het., 716, 1892. 

 Megalopyge pellucida Kirby, Cat. Lep. Het., 846, 1892. 



Herrich-Schaeffer figures a male with yellow body and gray 

 wings. I have a specimen of trossnta Dognin in which the 

 wings are nearly entirely denuded of scales, but a few dark- 

 gray ones remain at the base. Moschler described pellucida 

 from one female which was so "stark geflogen," as he says, 

 that he refrained from making a figure of it. The wings were 

 nearly entirely denuded of scales, though a few ocher-yellow 

 ones remained. There is little satisfaction in attempting to 

 identify species based upon such badly flown specimens, but 

 something must be done with the names, and I think they 

 might as well rest under the synonymy of chrysocoma. I 

 have a specimen of br/seis, referred to above, that was sent to 

 me by the late Dr. Staudinger under the name chrysocoma. 

 I have only Herrich-Schaeffer's figure to go by, no descrip- 

 tion, but I think that it represents a species with gray wings 

 rather than one denuded of scales. However, Dr. Staudinger 

 evidently thought otherwise, and, as chrysocoma was de- 

 scribed from Venezuela, he identified Venezuelan specimens, 

 which had the yellow body, as chrvsocoma. I am not sure 

 that he was right. However, I have before me several species 

 with uniform gray or brown wings and with the bod}' more 

 or less yellow, viz, nilpina Schaus, bnigca Schaus, omayana 

 Schaus, and an undescribed species from French Guiana, so that 

 the combination of gray wings and yellow body is perfectly 

 possible. It seems to me that Herrich-Schaeffer would not so 

 have represented a denuded wing. 



This species is, of course, not allied to the opercn Inn's group, 

 except distantly. The yellow body is retained, but the wings 

 have lost all trace of yellow as well as markings. I will not 

 pursue the chain of relationships any further, since it has 

 already led us far enough from the group under consideration. 



