THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGISI'. 215 



AN OMITTED PHYCITID. 



BY A. R. CJROTE, A. M., BREiMEN, GERMANV. 



I have not been able to find in the Philadelphia List of Lepidoptera 

 the following species : — ^ 



DIORYCTRIA, Zell. 



Renicuiella, Grt. (Pmipestis), N. Am. Ent, 67 ; Pack., Bull. Dep. Agr. 

 Ent., xiii., p. 21, 23; Fifth Rep. on Insects Inj. to Forest 

 and Shade Trees, 854 ; Romanoff, Mem. Sur les Lep. Tome 

 vii., Ragonot id. 200, Planche xxii., fig. 12. 

 My type is in the British Museum, where it has been examined by M. 

 Ragonot, who compares it in his description with the European D. 

 abietrella, from which this authority finds it to differ structurally. The 

 figure in M. Ragonot's magnificent work seems to me excellent. I take 

 this occasion to express my dissent from the cLissification adopted in the 

 Philadelphia List. In 187S I separated the Epipaschiince ( Epipaschice) 

 from the Phydtince (F/iycidce). The two groups I regard as divisions of 

 the Pyralidae, equal in value to the Crambince and Galleriince. So far as 

 I can discover, I first drew attention to the peculiar structure of the 

 female frenulum in the Phydtince. At the time I did not know that the 

 old term Phyds (used also by Walsh for our American species) had been 

 superseded by Phydta. Messrs. Scudder and Burgess first gave us 

 genitalic species ; Lederer had used the genitalia for subgeneric and 

 generic divisions, and latterly is followed by Smith. Nov/ comes Mr. 

 Hulst, whose mission seems to be to carry out the methods of other 

 entomologists to extremes, and gives us genitalic subfamilies. 



Besides the above-mentioned species of Diorydria., Mr, Ragonot 

 figures the following North American Phydtince originally described by 

 me : Salebria contatella and var. quinque pimdella, Meroptera pravella, 

 Diorydria aurantiacella, Pyla scifitillans, Nephopteryx scobidla, Avibesa 

 laetella, Diorydria ( Pinipestis) Zimmermanni, Acrobasis tricoioreila^ A. 

 demotella. 



In my paper alluded to above, Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey, I gave, for 

 the first time hi American scientific publications, figures of the neuration 

 and descriptions of the structure of the Phydtince. At the time only 

 the first part of my intended work was prepared for the printer. I had 

 purposed the working out of all the American genera in my collection. 

 We have now a most carefully written and beautifully illustrated work by 

 M. Ragonot, which can be studied with pleasure and profit by all Ameri- 

 can students occupying themselves with the collection of these little but 

 very interesting moths. 



