THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST, 309 



NOTES ON THE BREPHIDyE. 



BY JOHN B. SMITH, SC. D., NEW BRUNSWICK, N. J. 



The family Erephidce as it stands in our lists contains only five 

 species in two genera, Brephos, Ochs., and Leucobrephos, Grt., the latter 

 described by Mr. Grote in the Can. Ent., XV, p. 55, 1883, although first 

 used, without description, in the Buff. Bull, II, 53, nine years previously 



Of the species referred to Brephos, only one, in/ans, Moeschl., is 

 known in collections; the two species, melanis and califoniicus, described 

 by Boisduval in his Lepidoptera of California in the Ann. Soc. Ent. Belg., 

 Xil, 1869, have remained unknown up to this time. Mr. Grote (1. c.) 

 suggests that they are really Arctians, and I am inclined to agree with him. 

 1 have tried to identify the species with specimens of Leptarctia, but my 

 series is not sufficient to quite make it. In the hope that some of the 

 readers of the Can. Ent. may be better off in that genus, I present the 

 following copies of the original descriptions, freely translated : 



Brephos Californicus, Bdv. 



Primaries fusco-cinerous, with three obsolete white maculse ; 

 secondaries fulvous, with two black bands. 



This has the appearance of iiotha and puclla, but is smaller. The 

 primaries above are of a grayish-black, with three little white spots, of 

 which one is on the costa ; another, much less pronounced, is toward the 

 apex, and the third forms a small lunule above the internal angle. The 

 secondaries are yellow, a little fulvous, crossed toward the middle by a 

 black band which is constricted and interrupted ; and outwardly the 

 border is larger, black, witii the fringe yellow. Beneath all the wings are 

 yellow, with two common black bands. The female does not differ from 

 the male except that the antennae are more slender. 



Found in the spring in the clearings in woods. 

 Brephos Melanis, Bdv. 



Primaries grayish-fuscous, with two obsolete white marks; secondaries 

 black, immaculate. 



Size and form of the preceding. The primaries are of a grayish- 

 black, with two spots of dirty white, of which one is on the costa and the 

 other, a little smaller, toward the internal angle. The secondaries and 

 the fiinge are completely black. Beneath, the primaries are traversed by 

 a broad yellow band. We have seen only males. 



Lives in the woods. 



November, 1907 



