122 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Genus Melalopha, Hiibn (== Ichtkyura, Hiibn.) 



M. ALETHE, 11. Sp. 



We have before us a $ specimen from Truckee, California, which 

 seems to be undescribed. It is possible that we have to do with M, api- 

 calis, though the description of Walker does not fit. It is allied to M. 

 multnoma, Dyar, and M. brucei, Hy. Edw. 



Colour, obscure gray or drab, with the usual deep brown thoracic mark. 

 Fore wings slightly purplish (" ecru drab," Ridgway's nomenclature of 

 colours, plate III., fig. 21), the lines as in brucei and multnoma, but white 

 and narrower, more as in pigra, powdery, obsolescent, under the lens 

 narrowly broken here and there, the fourth forming a distinct, somewhat 

 S-shaped bend at costa, where it is slightly widened and distinctly white. 

 The wing is very uniform in colour, without the contrasting shades of 

 brucei and multnoma ; there is no subapical rusty patch except the 

 merest trace outside the 4th line, but a moderately distinct deep brown 

 shade overspreads the whole apical portion of the wing from the third 

 line outward, reaching downward to vein 3, and being most strongly 

 marked in the region of the 4th line. It recalls the ornamentation of M. 

 auachoreta, Fabr. ; but is far from being as distinct as in that species. 

 This shading is present in M. var. ornata and M. brucei and others, but 

 these have also the shade bordering the 3rd line, so that the resemblance 

 to auachoreta is obscured. Subterminal series of interspaceal dots nearly 

 straight, very uniform, and not obscured by the shading. 



Hind wings drab (Ridgway, plate, III., fig. 18), immaculate. Ex- 

 panse, 28 mm. 



The following table will serve to separate the North American forms 

 of Melalopha. Omitted names are referred to the synonymy : — 



Lines not anastomosing, the 3rd running free from internal margin to 

 costa. 



Only the 4th line present (?) apicalis, Walk. 



Lines all present. 



Size large, basal line straight. 



Colour dark, with black subapical patch . albosigma, Fitch. 



Colour paler, patch brown .var. specifica, Dyar. 



Size smaller, basal line angulated and curved. 

 Of uniform tint, subapical rusty patch very 



obscure alet/ie, Neum. and Dyar. 



