PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



issued i(EJia\ yj> . ( jUHl by (he 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Vol. 93 Washington : 1943 No. 3159 



SOME AMEEICAN GEOMETRID MOTHS OF THE SUB- 

 FAMILY ENNOMINAE HERETOFORE ASSOCIATED 

 WITH OR CLOSELY RELATED TO ELLOPIA TRE- 

 ITSCHKE 



By Hahn W. Capps 



For some time it has been apparent that the species assigned to the 

 genus Ellopia Treitschke or Therina Hiibner in our check lists 1 

 of North American Lepidoptera are not a homogeneous group con- 

 sidered on the basis of characters believed to indicate natural affinity 

 and have needed reclassification. As originally planned, this paper 

 was to be confined to the treatment of the species north of Mexico, but 

 as the work progressed it became apparent that none of the American 

 forms is congeneric with the European species Therina fasciaria (Lin- 

 naeus), genotype of Ellopia Treitschke and Therina Hiibner. Fur- 

 thermore, no species of true Ellopia occurs in the New World. In 

 order to determine the relative value of characters for defining specific 

 and generic categories, the scope of the paper was enlarged to include 

 species occurring in Mexico, Central America, and South America 

 which had previously been assigned to the genus or are obviously 

 closely related to it. 



This study is based on material in the collection of the United States 

 National Museum supplemented by specimens borrowed from the col- 

 lections of the Universities of Kansas and Michigan and that of John 

 L. Sperry, and on types examined at the Academy of Natural Sciences 

 of Philadelphia and Rutgers University. More than 800 specimens 



1 Hulst, U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 52, 1903 (part) ; Barnes and McDunnongh, Check list of 

 the Lepidoptera of Boreal America, 1917 ; McDunnough, Check list of the Lepidoptera of 

 Canada and the United States of America (Part 1, Macrolepidoptera), 1938. 



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