252 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 257 



larger dots in an elongate lozenge at about 1/4, median pair slightly 

 outwards-oblique, posterior dot slightly more distant, submedian 

 above middle; four dots forming ahnost a quadrate before apex, slightly 

 inwards-oblique, lower dot largest, shifted more basad; a point in 

 tornus. Cilia concolorous. 



Hindwing in male dull light ochreous yellow, paler than forewing. 

 Cilia concolorous, glossy; in female of the same color, but with a 

 central large patch of brownish suffusion, from beyond base to half- 

 way beyond cell. 



Male genitalia: Very close to those of A. platycypha. Uncus halves 

 more slender, less sinuate, basal part and median thickening narrower. 

 Halves of the gnathos plate more rounded. Valva with cucullus 

 processes shorter, especially the dorsal process. Base of sacculus 

 with a longer process. 



Female genitalia: Seventh segment moderately sclerotized. Eighth 

 segment shaped as an extremely heavy, inverted V, arms internally 

 open, their tops obUquely truncate; anapophyses dilated and united 

 with the dorsal side of the arms of the V. Ostium bursae, a small 

 opening at the base of the V. Postapophyses slender, moderate. 

 Lobus analis very large, floricomous, with a sclerotized edge. Ductus 

 bursae tortuous, extremely long, corpus bursae moderate, ovoid. 

 Signum depressed- triangular, dentate. 



Ethmia Hiibner, 1822 



Ethmia Hiibner, 1822, Verzeichniss bekannter Schmettlinge, p. 163. 



Type species: Psecadia pyrausta Pallas, 1771 (Europe). 



The following species of Ethmia are aptly characterized by Meyrick 

 (1905, p. 289): ". . . species, belonging to a puzzling group of which the 

 members are extremely similar. . . ." Starting in 1910 he described 

 a series of new Ethmia species from the Indo-Australian region, 

 around Walker's classical species, E. hilarella. These species were 

 described after a single or a couple of specimens, using minor differ- 

 ences of markings of the wings. Although the descriptions are lucid 

 and credit should be given to Meyrick's sagacity, longer series of 

 additional material show that the minute differences of markings 

 indicated by him disappear entirely within the range of specific 

 variation, and that the only means of discriminating the species with 

 certainty are, again, the genital characters. 



The male genitalia of this genus present excellent specific characters, 

 yet they are built very much to the same plan. Uncus usually is 

 strongly developed and bifid. Gnathos of the complicated sub- 

 scaphium type, usually a more or less dentate plate supporting tuba 

 analis, sometimes extended downward as a vertical plate and joined 



