NOTES ON ELACHISTA WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF 

 NEW SPECIES (MICROLEPIDOPTERA.) 



Annette F. Braun. 



In the present paper, five new species of Elachista are 

 described, four of which were reared from mines. The Hfe 

 histories of two other species are here recorded for the first 

 time. As the Hfe histories of so few of the previously described 

 species are known, a revision of the genus as a whole will better 

 be delayed until the life histories of more of these species and 

 of a number of new species represented by captured specimens 

 in the writer's collection are worked out. 



Of the new species described below, all except E. argentosa 

 agree in venation with the figure given by Meyrick, Handbook 

 of British Lepidoptera, p. 664. In E. argentosa veins 2, 3 and 4 

 of the fore wing arise opposite the space between veins 9 and 10, 

 as in E. madarella Clemens, to which it is closely allied in all 

 other respects. The venation of the hind wing is the same as 

 that of the other species described. 



Most of the species of the genus are single-brooded. A 

 search for mines from March to May on leaves of grasses and 

 sedges is sure to result in interesting discoveries. Many larvae 

 which feed on the basal overwintering leaves begin to mine in 

 the autumn, completing their growth early in the spring. Some 

 species are strictly confined to one species of grass as a food 

 plant, and in some instances to certain parts of the plant. 



Th'e pupae present very reliable specific characters. Two 

 species with quite similar imagoes may have strikingly different 

 pupae. There are two general types of pupse in the genus, the 

 extremes of which are quite sharply distinguished from one 

 another. In one of these, represented by E. prcelineata Braun, 

 which is figured by Miss Mosher,* the body is stout, and from 

 the dorsal view ovate in general outline with the lateral margins 

 of the abdomen curving posteriorly to the anal end. In this 

 type the cuticle is shining throughout. Examples among the 

 species below are E. orestella, E. albicapiteUa, and E. argentosa. 



* A Classification of the Lepidoptera based on Characters of the Pupa, Bull. 

 111. State Lab. Nat. Hist., Vol. XII, Art. II, 1916, Plate XXVI, Fig. 100. 



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