SOME MOTHS, GENUS ACLERIS — OBRAZTSOV 265 



Unfi[?ttiiigly] desc[ribed] from a unique jemalel Gray with rust-red 

 streak on cell a[nd] tuft on fold. Not represented in B.[arnes] 

 coll[ection] an[d] I cannot id[e]nt[i]fy it as any of the large Northwest 

 spechii[ens] [from] B.[ritish] C.[olumbia] which I shall descr[i]be as 

 [a] n.[ew] s_p.[ecies]." 



Thus, there is no other choice but to treat ferruginiguttana as a 

 "species dubia" without any definitive diagnosis. Any attempt to 

 apply this name to some Acleris specimens would merely be based on 

 a simple speculation which might be rejected by later authors. Since 

 the type specimen oi ferruginiguttana is destroyed, and therefore its 

 genitalia cannot be studied, it seems safer to recognize this name as 

 unavailable for systematic use. For this reason, the present author 

 has decided to propose for the species treated, without proof, by 

 Busck and McDunnough as Fernald's ferruginiguttana, the name 

 disputabilis , new species. 



McDunnough (1934) regarded the specimens of this species, occur- 

 ring in the western Canadian provinces, as agi-eeing in genitalia with 

 those from Colorado, identified by Busck with, ferruginiguttana, and 

 used this latter name in a varietal sense, for a form of nigrolinea. 

 The specunens from Manitoba, Alberta, and British Columbia 

 McDunnough believed to belong to this variety, whereas the specimens 

 from Ontario he referred to the nominate form of nigrolinea. On the 

 basis of an essential material, the present author has established 

 genitalic differences between the specunens from British Columbia 

 and Manitoba, and he can only identify those from British Columbia 

 with his new species disputabilis (ferruginiguttana Busck and McDun- 

 nough, not Fernald). He has found the specunens from Manitoba 

 inseparable from nigrolinea. 



It is quite difficult, if not impossible, to recognize disputabilis on 

 the basis of its external characters. The color of forewings and their 

 markings vary so much in this new species that some specunens can 

 easily be confused with nigrolinea or maximana. Only the genitalia 

 give a basis for separation. In their general shape the male genitalia 

 of disputabilis resemble those of nigrolinea, but differ from them in 

 some details. The socii of disputabilis are somewhat longer than in 

 nigrolinea, and are distinctly tapering apicad. The angle of sacculus 

 before its half is prolonged in a stouter thornlike projection than m 

 nigrolinea, in which this projection is slightly bent upward. The 

 excavation of sacculus extemad from this projection is in disputabilis 

 somewhat deeper, and the tip of sacculus is longer than in nigrolinea 

 and ends more acutely. In general, the valva of disputabilis is more 

 downcurved than in nigrolinea. In the female genitalia, disputabilis 

 differs from nigrolinea in having the lateral lobes of sterigma much 



