THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 57 



NEW HISTORIES AND SPECIES IN PAPAIPEMA (HYDRCECIA). 



BY HENRY BIRD, RYE, N. Y. 



(Continued from Vol. XL, page 30.) 



For some years past the writer has wondered if the species of 

 Papaipema, boring as a larva in Helianthus giganteus throughout this 

 section of the Atlantic seaboard, was really the necopina of Grote. The 

 fact of its restricted occurrence, which a wider knowledge of our fauna has 

 yearly accentuated, made us wonder whether Buffalo, N. Y., the type 

 locality, would in any likelihood support this species. Ten years back 

 this local form was sent to Mr. Grote when he was at Hildesheim, Ger- 

 many, and confirmed by him to be the necopina he had described twenty 

 years before. His types, however, were not with him for comparison, 

 being in the British Museum, and there remained a slight difference in the 

 description of his species and the local form. With each succeeding year 

 that it was bred at Rye, and the occurrences were in goodly numbers, we 

 became more impressed with the constancy of the species, and that, in the 

 slight degree wherein it differed, this discrepancy always held. Later 

 comparisons by different ones of the British Museum types with Rye 

 material elicited no suggestion of a tangible difference. Finally imper- 

 turbata, working in Helianthus divaricatus, was encountered, and it differs 

 from the description of necopina quite as much as the seaboard form. 

 Certainly it and the latter are very distinct, though superficially the moths 

 are much alike. At this time both are sent to the British Museum, as Sir 

 George Hampson is studying the group in the preparation of his Catalogue. 

 He reports the species in H. giganteus to be undoubtedly necopina, though 

 noting the presence of a transverse posterior line on the primaries, which 

 does not occur in the originals. Later on he asks, "Cin there be a third 

 species and this the typical necopina ?" 



At about this time, however, material for identification had been 

 received by the writer from Messrs. Lucas and Moeser, of Buffalo, and 

 bred by them there, among which appeared a form running larger than 

 imperturbata, though returned as probably that species. It certainly was 

 not "necopina" as we had so long known it. The matter was deemed 

 worthy of further investigation, and on a kind invitation to explore some of 

 their favourite preserves in July, 1908, a few profitable days were spent in 

 that locality. It soon became apparent that the species they had reared 

 was a very common and well-established one there, occurring everywhere 

 that neglected areas allowed the growth of Helianthus tuberosus, its 



February, 1909 



