34 BULLETIN 190, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



sparsely banded or mixed with yellow. Posterior tibiae blue-black be- 

 tween the spurs, otherwise more yellow than those of the male. Forewing 

 heavily shaded with orange, especially between the black veins, nearly 

 obscuring the transparent areas before and behind the discal mark, which 

 remains black ; a thin, well-defined orange line running between the black 

 border and the fringes on both the f orewings and hindwings ; beneath, 

 wings heavily shaded with golden yellow. 



Expanse: Male and female, 15 to 22 mm. 



Distribution. — Throughout Rocky Mountains and westward to the 

 Pacific coast from California to British Columbia. Not east of Rocky 

 Mountains. 



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

 cotypes of the synonyms are distributed as follows : In the United States 

 National Museum: One male, Aegeria madariae Hy. Edwards, Sausalito, 

 Calif.; one female, Aegeria aureola Hy. Edwards, Nevada; one male, 

 Aegeria impropria Hy. Edwards, Washington Territory ; one male, 

 Aegeria perplexa Hy. Edwards (Texas, J. Bol?) ; one female, Aegeri-a 

 hemisoniae Hy. Edwards, Nevada. 



In the American Museum of Natural History: One female, Albuna 

 rutilans Hy. Edwards, Virginia City, Nev. ; three females, Aegeria hemi- 

 zoniae Hy. Edwards, Nevada; three males and three females, Aegeria lu- 

 pini Hy. Edwards, Marin and Mendocino Counties, Calif. ; one male, 

 Aegeria impropria Hy. Edwards, Marin County, Calif. ; one male, Aegeria 

 washingtonia Hy. Edwards, Washington Territory ; one male, one female, 

 Aegeria madariae Hy. Edwards, Sausalito, Calif. 



Remarks. — The strawberry crown moth, best known in the past as Sesia 

 rutilans Hy. Edwards, has been the subject of numerous publications on 

 the part of professional entomologists dealing with the insect as an eco- 

 nomic species injurious to strawberries and other related plants under 

 cultivation, but neglecting its original status as an indigenous North Amer- 

 ican species with wild food plants from which its attacks spread to plants 

 under cultivation. The problem, after prolonged investigation, has been 

 solved only in part. 



The moths are strong, swift fliers, most frequently encountered and 

 captured on flowers, perhaps flowering dogbane (Apocynaceae), but visit- 

 ing many other plants also. Flowers do not serve as a dependable guide to 

 the food plant, as evidently assumed by earlier authors, who gave botanical 

 names to species now listed as synonyms under bibionipennis. 



Long series of specimens at the United States National Museum ade- 

 quately cover the wide range of the species along the Pacific coast from 

 California to British Columbia and inland to, but not east of, the Rocky 

 Mountains. More eastern records are based on misidentifications. At- 

 tacks on cultivated strawberries are more severe on the Pacific coast than 

 elsewhere. Wild strawberries do not appear to be affected, and injury to 



