50 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. iie 



Menesta albaciliaeella Busck, 1903b, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., vol. 25, p. 903; 1934, 



in Lepidopterorum catalogus, vol. 67, p. 5. 

 Menesta albiciliella [sic] Walsingham, 1911, Lepidoptera-Heterocera, vol. 4 



(vol. 42 in Godman and Salvin, Biologia Central!- Americana) , p. 104. 

 Menesta albaciliella [sic] Braun, 1915, Ent. News, vol. 26, p. 160. 



Alar expanse 9-10 mm. 



Color: Face and palpus white, palpus shaded with fuscous. Legs 

 white, shaded anteriorly with fuscous, especially apex of tibia and 

 apices of tarsi, hindtibia with long haii-s. Thorax brown doi-sally, 

 with gi-ayish hue. Abdomen brown dorsally, white ventrally. Fore- 

 wing blackish brown with gi'eenish-violet reflections; few white scales 

 just beyond middle forming indistinct, short, transverse line; apical 

 cUia white or brown, remainder brown. Hindwing much lighter 

 brown; cUia brown, tipped with white apically. 



Male genitalia: Uncus simple, large basally, tapering to point 

 apically, curved ventrad parallel to gnathos; gnathos well developed, 

 very long, blunt apically; harpes simple, bluntly rounded at apex, 

 bearing large cluster of small, stiff, bifurcate setae; vinculum complete, 

 anellus with two lateral lobes partially encircling aedeagus, aedeagus 

 pointed apically; cornuti consisting of two large, heavy spines. 



Female genitalia: Genital plate reduced to small median triangular 

 sclerite; ostium bursae slightly sclerotized; ductus bursae with dilated 

 area before inception of ductus seminalis; corpus bm-sae with large, 

 heavily sclerotized, cross-shaped signum with outwardly projecting 

 median lobe; inception of ductus seminalis approximately halfway 

 between ostium and corpus bursae. Anterior apophyses free, arising 

 ventrally. 



Type: In the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 



Type locality: Pennsylvania (M. tortriciformella), Kentucky (H. 

 coryliella), Nova Scotia (0. litur ella) ,Cmcmnsiti, Ohio (S. albaciliaeella). 



Food plant: Rubus Villosus Ait. and Corylus americana Walt. 

 Chambers (1875) and Braun (1915) give accounts of the life history of 

 this species. 



Distribution: ohio: Cincinnati (May, June, July). Pennsylvania: 

 Harvey's Lake (June), new jersey: Essex Co. (June), new york: 

 Buffalo (June); Peru (June); Protection (June). Maryland: Cabin 

 John (May). Virginia: Ocean View (July). Ontario: Kearney 

 (July). 



This species has been known previously only from its type, which 

 Busck (1903) incorrectly reported as being without an abdomen. 

 The genitalia of the type of M. tortriciformella has been studied and 

 found to be identical with those of S. albaciliaeella. This synonymy 

 is not surprising because the only characters used in the past to 

 separate the two species were slight differences in the color of the head 



