30 BULLETIN 190, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



latter in pupal cases in the crown of the roots, could be found. The roots 

 were enormous, 1 to several inches thick, deeply anchored and scarred in 

 many places. In view of the abundance of the moths, it was surprising 

 that the work of the borers was so little in evidence. No other plant in 

 the neighborhood seemed suitable. Possibly the mature larvae leave the 

 roots for pupation in the soil. The types of the species were collected in 

 Paradise Park, Mount Rainier, formerly known as Mount Tacoma. The 

 species is common on all the high mountains in Washington, Oregon, and 

 northern California, provided the food plant is present. It has been 

 recorded from Mount Adams, Mount Baker, the Cascades, and Mount 

 St. Helens in Washington, and from Mount Hood and Mount Jefferson 

 in Oregon. Examples from these peaks, all dated during July, show very 

 little color variation. A fine series from Mount Lassen, Calif., July 14, 

 1934, displays considerably more bright red, in the females particularly. 

 A few specimens from the Bitterroot Mountains of Idaho are in too poor 

 condition for comparison, but there is a long series from the Elkhorn 

 Mountains of eastern Oregon, 5,000 feet, July 31, 1938, which averages 

 smaller in size and much darker, almost black in color. The food plant 

 here, while also a Polygonum, is a different, small-leaved species with 

 much smaller roots. A few larvae, but no pupae, were found. The differ- 

 ence in size, color, and in the food plant of this series warrants recognition, 

 and I have named it ivallozva, a geographical race of chrysidipennis (Bois- 

 duval). 



J. F. Gates Clarke, on a visit to Sheep Lake, Yakima County, Mount 

 Rainier, Wash., early in August 1930, found the moths of chrysidipennis 

 swarming on open alpine meadows, elevation a1x)ut 6,000 feet. He also 

 reports an abvmdance of the larvae and pupae in the roots of Polygonum 

 davisiar. The larvae, before pupating, frequently had constructed silk- 

 lined tubes protruding 1 to several inches be3^ond the exit of their burrows. 



RAMOSIA CHRYSIDIPENNIS WALLOWA, new race 



Plate 18, Figures 99, 100 



Male. — Palpus with a strong uneven brush, mixed black and yellow in 

 color. Head black. Collar sordid yellow. Thorax black, hairy, some- 

 times with traces of yellow on patagia. Abdomen black, with segments 2, 

 4, and 6 narrowly banded with pale yellow above ; beneath and at the 

 sides with traces of yellow in irregular arrangement ; fan-shaped anal tuft 

 wholly black. Posterior tibiae black, tarsi black, touched with yellow. 

 Forewing transparent, costa, outer margins, and discal mark black with 

 only a sprinkling of orange scales on and between the veins on inner mar- 

 gins and on the veins before the wing base. Hindwing transparent, bor- 

 ders dull black, costa and wing base touched with orange. Beneath, wings 

 shaded a deeper orange. 



