THK CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 3] 3 



NOTES ON THE PTEROPHORID^ OR PLUME-^IOTHS OF 

 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, WITH DESCRIPTIONS 



OF NEW SPECIES. 



BY FORDVCE GRINNELL, JR., PASADENA, CALIF. 



Lord Walsingham's paper, '•Pterophoridas of California and Oregon," 

 published in London, England, in 1880, is the first to describe or record 

 any Plume moihs from California. It is devoted to those collected by the 

 author in a journey through California and Oregon in 1871 and 1872. 

 This was, and is, a notable contribution to Californian lepidopterology, and 

 will hold its })lace in the future as a classic in the study of this interesting 

 group of moths. Its descriptions are excellent, and its three plates well 

 executed. Zeller in 1874 published a paper called " Lepidoptera der 

 Westkiiste Amerika's," in which he describes Leioptihis Mathewiamis 

 from Vancouver Island. Charles Fish was the next person to describe 

 any Plume-moths from California ; this he did in a paper published in the 

 Canadian Entomologist, in 1881, the specimens being mostly collected 

 by Baron in Mendocino County. Since this last paper nothing has been 

 recorded or described concerning these moths from California, except one 

 species in Dyai's "List of North American Lepidoptera," 1902 ; this last 

 work is important, as giving the synonymy and range of each species. 

 Fernald, in 1898, published his valuable ''Pterophoridce of North America," 

 reviewing the structure and literature, and describing all the species and 

 genera with keys, and adding a few species from California without 

 definite localities \ this is the most important work on the Pterophoridae 

 of North America, and in the matter of genera and arrangement I follow 

 it closely in the present paper. 



It is seen that no species of Plume-moths have been definitely 

 reported from Southern California ; but the present paper shows them to 

 be not at all rare, and that we have a good fauna, as we have of every- 

 thing else. Doubtless many more species will be discovered with search 

 and study. 



]\Iost of the material for this paper was collected at the headwaters of 

 the Santa Ana River, in the San Bernardino Mountains, Southern 

 California, by Prof. Joseph Grinnell, during the summer of 1907 ; and it 

 shows the number of species to be taken in a rather small circumscribed 

 area. A few species have been taken at San Diego by Mr. Wm. S. Wright, 

 to whom I am indebted for sending them to me. Mr. Francis X. Williams 

 has collected two new species near San Francisco, and raised them from 

 the Urvae. A few have been collected at Pasadena and Stanford Univer- 

 sity by the writer. 



September, 1908 



