344 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM tol. 86 



The larvae feed gregariously for a short period after hatching 

 (probably during the first instar) but thereafter are solitary in habit. 

 They feed in the joints of various Platypuntias. 



Remarks. — In his description of the genus Dyar gives the male palpi 

 as upturned and those of the female as oblique. Strictly speaking 

 they are obliquely upturned in both sexes, though in many females the 

 third joints are bent forward, which gives the palps a porrect ap- 

 pearance. The genus is close to Melitara and distinguished from it 

 only by the following characters : Labial palpi obliquely ascending ; 

 larvae transversely banded and solitary in habit during most of the 

 feeding period. 



Three species and one local race are here recognized. They are 

 remarkably alike in structure, whatever diflferences in genitalia there 

 may be between specimens being individual rather than specific. The 

 species, however, can be distinguished easily enough by the characters 

 given in the following key : 



KEY TO THE SPECIES OF OLYCELLA 



1. General color of fore wing ocherous-fuscous ; hind tibia white 



with very little dark dusting 2 



General color of fore wing grayish fuscous; hind tibia heavily 

 dusted with fuscous 3 



2. Transverse markings of fore wing fairly distinct — 1. junctolineella (Hulst) 

 Transverse markings of fore wing obsolete. 



2. junctolineella pectinatella (Hampson) 



3. General color grayish with a slight brownish overtint (distri- 



bution, the central plateau of Mexico) 3. nephelepasa (Dyar) 



General color decidedly grayish (distribution, western Texas 

 and Arizona to California and Utih) 4. subumbrella (Dyar) 



1. OLYCELLA JUNCTOLINEELLA (Hulst) 



Plates 24, 36, 45 ; Figures 3-3c, 42^2a, 88-88a, 89-89a 



Melitara junctolineella Hulst, Can. Ent, vol. 32, p. 173, 1900; U. S. Nat. Mus. 



Bull. 52, p. 429, 1903.— Hunter, Pratt, and Mitchell, Bur. Ent, U. S. Dept. 



Agr., Bull. 113, p. 25, 1912.— Barnes and McDunnough, Contr. Nat. Hist 



Lepid. North America, vol. 3, no. 3, p. 199, 191G. — Dodd, Council for Scientific 



and Industrial Research, Australia, Bull. 34, p. 27, 1927. 

 Olyca junctolineella (Hulst) Barnes and McDunnough, Check list of the Lepi- 



doptera of Boreal America, no. 5695, 1917. 

 Olycella junctolineella (Hulst) Dyar, Proc. Ent. Soc. Washington, vol. 30, p. 134, 



1928. 



Male. — ^Head, thorax, and fore wings ocherous-fuscous dusted with 

 white and marked with patches and lines of black scales. Labial palpus 

 with the apical ends of the segments blackish. Maxillary palpus cross- 

 banded with black scales. Thorax with some black dusting on posterior 

 margin. Fore wing with whitish dusting slightly intensified in costal 



