CLEAR-WING MOTHS OF FAMILY AEGERIIDAE 29 



sufficient to decide on the specific status. Both praestans and fragariae 

 are in need of much more extended field investigations, particularly in the 

 Pacific Northwest. 



KAMOSIA CHRYSIDIPENNIS (Boisduval) 



Sesta chrysidipennis Boisduval, Ann. Soc. Ent. Belgique, vol. 12, p. 64, 1869. 

 Sesia tacoma Beutenmuller, Journ. New York Ent. Soc, vol. 6, p. 240, 1898 ; Mem. 



Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. 1, pt. 6, p. 304, pi. 32, figs. 28, 29, 1901. 

 Synanthedon bibionipennis McDunnough, Check list of the Lepidoptera of Canada 



and the United States of America, pt. 2, No. 8697, 1939. 



Male. — ^Antennae black. Palpi yellow, fringed with long black hair at 

 the sides. Head black. Collar sordid yellow. Thorax black, hairy, 

 sparsely mixed with yellow, a yellow patch beneath at the sides, and meta- 

 thorax tufted with sordid yellow. Abdomen black, segments 2, 4, and 

 6 banded with yellow on posterior half, segment 7 touched with yellow, 

 and all segments beneath edged with yellow. Anal tuft fan-shaped, black, 

 slightly edged with yellow at the sides. Femora black; tibiae heavily 

 scaled, yellow, broadly banded with blue-black at posterior spurs ; tarsi 

 yellow, Forewing transparent, outer costa and margins black, inwardly 

 edged with red, broadly so on lower margin basally ; the veins and areas 

 between the veins at apex heavily scaled with red ; the discal mark black, 

 edged with red. Hindwing with veins mostly red, margins brown-black, 

 tinged with red inwardly and red at base. Beneath, wings shaded promi- 

 nently with red and orange, the margins dull black. 



Female. — Much redder than the male. Palpi wholly yellow. Abdomi- 

 nal segments 2, 4, and 6 broadly banded with yellow above, segments 4, 

 5, and 6 yellow beneath ; anal tuft a short, roundish brush, black inter- 

 mixed with yellow. Transparent areas on forewing much reduced and 

 sufifused with red, the narrow, black center of discal mark broadly mar- 

 gined with red, underside bright orange, margins dull black. 



Expanse: Male 20 to 22 mm., female 20 to 23 mm. 



Distribution. — Pacific coast mountains at or above timberline, northern 

 California to British Columbia. 



Type. — Male. In the United States National Museum. 



Remarks. — Exposure to frigid climates naturally calls for warm cover- 

 ing. R. chrysidipennis, in its habitat at timberline, has adjusted itself to 

 such an environment. It is clothed with hair much denser and longer 

 than that of its near relatives at lower elevations. 



My first encounter with the species was at Crater Lake, Oreg., 8,000 

 feet, during July 1921. The moths were swarming on open meadows 

 between snowdrifts. Low-growing, large-leaved plants, subsequently de- 

 termined as Polygonum davisiae, were the attraction. A hundred or more 

 specimens were easily netted, and a number of the plants were uprooted 

 in a search for larvae and pupae. Only one larva and two pupae, the 



