CLEAR-WING MOTHS OF FAMILY AEGERIIDAE 27 



females, the color patterns of jmgariae are distinctive. The forewings of 

 the males always show transparent areas before and behind the discal 

 mark. Such areas also are always present on the forewings of the females, 

 though often much reduced and suffused. The hindwings of the females 

 are broadly margined and shaded inwardly with scales between the veins, 

 sometimes so much so as to render the wings opaque. The heaviest shad- 

 ing has been noted on females from Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and 

 Nevada. Such examples are not easily distinguished from females of the 

 race helianthi from California. 



The habitat of jragariae appears to be confined to regions of high eleva- 

 tion, 4,000 to 10,000 feet, from the Pacific coast eastward to the Rocky 

 Mountains and northward through British Columbia to Alaska. It is a 

 root borer in Eriogonum. Only two authentic rearing records have been 

 submitted so far, a male from Pack Lake, Grant County, Wash., on Eriog- 

 omim compositum, May 31, 1935, and another on Eriogonum sp. from 

 Wawawai, Wash., June 7, 1935 (J. F. Gates Clarke). Evidence of the 

 borer's work in the roots of various herbaceous species of Eriogonum has 

 been found on several occasions, although not at a time that would permit 

 breeding. The imagoes are encountered most frequently and sometimes 

 in numbers on flowers, not especially on Eriogonum but on many different 

 kinds. A thorough study of the group of buckwheat root borers, their 

 early stages, habits, species, and variations is needed. This is beyond the 

 scope of the traveling investigator. It is a task for an entomologist with 

 ready and continued access to the habitat of the species. Problems in tax- 

 onomy, biology, and genetics are involved. 



Many of the old records are lacking in exact locality, date of collection, 

 and elevation. A large number of specimens are labeled Plumas County, 

 Siskiyou County, and Tuolumne County, Calif. Other material available 

 includes a female, Warner Mountains, Modoc County, Calif., 5,500 feet, 

 July 15, 1922 (A. W. Lindsey) ; one female, Wenatchee, Wash., "on 

 yarrow," July 2, 1914 (E. J. Newcomer) ; a series, males and females, 

 from Bitterroot Mountains, July 1902 (C. V. Piper) ; a series, males and 

 females, from Eureka and Stockton, Utah, May-July 1910 (T. Spauld- 

 ing) ; three females. Fort Wingate, N. Mex., June 8, 1915 (J. Wood- 

 gate) ; a male, San Juan Mountains, Colo. (Oslar) ; two females, Floris- 

 sant and Boulder, Colo., June 27, 1922 (Cockerell) ; males and females, 

 labeled only "Colo.," and a small series, males and females, labeled Lazy 

 Bay, Alaska. 



The name jragariae does not fit the species for, although the imagoes 

 undoubtedly visit the blossoms of strawberries as well as many other 

 flowers, strawberry is not a food plant of the larva. 



