A REVISION OF THE AMERICAN MOTHS OF THE FAMILY 

 GELECHIID.E, WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW SPECIES. 



B}^ August Busck, 



U. S. Department of Agriculture. 



Since Dr. C. V. Riley's I^ist of Tineina^ nothing has been published 

 on thi.s group in America except isolated descriptions of single species 

 and their life histories. 



Dr. Riley followed the classification generally in use at that time, 

 founded on Stainton's and lieinemann'.s works, although Edward Mey- 

 rick' previoush" had published his masterly rearrangement of the 

 group based on natural evolutionary lines, a work which, as Lord 

 Walsingham has said,^ after the fuller exploitation of the system in 

 the Handbook of British Lepidoptera, "marks an epoch in the study 

 of these insects.""- 



Since then the views of Meyrick have been generally adopted and 

 great strides have been made by European specialists in the study of 

 these insects. A much more satisfactory appreciation of the value and 

 relatioUiship of the genera and families now prevails than was formerly 

 the case. 



The following arrangement of the American Gelechiidse consists in 

 the application to the American fauna of the results of these advanced 

 studies. 



In this work I have been greatl}' assisted ))y Mr. Edward Meyrick. 

 Numerous concrete questions have been made clear for me by his valu- 

 able assistance, which he has most liberal I3' and untiring!}" extended. 



Much kind help also has been received from Lord Walsingham and 

 Mr. John Hartley Durrant, whose large collections and intimate 

 knowledge of the iVmerican forms mad(^ their aid particularly valual^le. 



Without the previous work and the liberal help and encouragement 

 from these authorities in England my task would have been much more 

 difficult, if not an impossible one. 



As a basis for this paper I have examined all the authentic material 

 of former workers which is still in existence on this side of the Atlantic, 

 too-ether with much new material. 



In J. B. Smith's List Lep. Bor. Am., 1891. ^^rans. Ent. Soc, London, 1883. 



='Proc. Zool. Soc, London, 1897. 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. XXV— No. 1304. 



767 



