364 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol. 38. 



outer angle. Discal spot absent or barely visible. Fringe as in 

 primaries. Beneath, smoky with the ground color showing through 

 outwardly, the costal and central portions and the veins washed with 

 reddish-brown. Lines of primaries absent; that of the secondaries 

 faintly showing. Discal spot of fore wings white, conspicuous; of 

 hind wings white, sometimes partly margined with black scales which 

 occasionally cover the spot and give a decidedly dusky or even black 

 appearance. 



I'\ imil, .—Differs from the typical male in that the ground color and 

 darker shadings are of a reddish-brown cast, in that the shadings are 

 not so dense and thus the inner cross line shows up more distinctly 

 and in the outer cross line being, on the whole, considerably more 

 sinuate. 



Habitat. —Maine to Florida and westward to Alberta, Colorado, and 

 Texas. According to the specimens before me the species flies in the 

 Atlantic States from March 14 continuously to September 16; in the 

 Northwest in .lime and .Inly, in Colorado in August, and in Texas 

 in .lime. 



This is the only species in the East that is not decidedly variegated 

 in color, and may be distinguished by that fact alone. The genitalia 

 belong in the same scries with <ji<janteus, peplarioides, and behren- 

 sarius, but differs from all in some marked respects. The lower pro- 

 jection of the clasper is considerably longer than in any, the scaphium 

 i- relatively larger and stouter, and the form of the apical process of 

 i he penis is peculiar to itself alone. 



Evidently the metropolis of the species is in the North Atlantic 

 States, where the typical form of both sexes is common. At the 

 extreme points, especially in the Northwest, the colors are not so 

 bright, and the contrast between the ground color and the ornamen- 

 i .-it ion is less si riking. 



The male is the dark form that has hitherto been called peplaria. 

 That it i- simply the male of Itoiwstarius is shown by the fact that 

 of the L32 specimens under observation (iS of the SO males were the 

 black form, while 12, though dark, had the reddish-brown cast of the 

 female. In no case did the female resemble the male in general color, 

 ■ ill of them having the reddish-brown cast. 



There are few American species of Geometrida' that have fallen 

 into greater confusion than has Tumestarius with is sexual color varia- 

 t ion and supposed \ ariet ies. 



The inline ana. tarda, under which it has gone for a number of years, 

 musl disappear from our lists. It was first used in L 806 by Hiibner 

 in In- Sammlung Exotischer Schmel terlinge, volume "-'.and was merely 

 •■in erroneous application on hi- part of anceta Cramer, a species 

 different from the one he figures and which Mr. L. B. Prout tells me 



