42 BULLETIN 190, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



bark, and the larvae, feeding largely on the inner pith, excavate long 

 tunnels in the canes and branches. The moths emerge late in May and 

 in June. In the New England and Atlantic Coast States and in Wash- 

 ington, Oregon, and northern California all plantings of currants are 

 subject to attack. Specimens from scattered points over the Rocky 

 Mountain region and the Midwestern States are included in the United 

 States National Museum collection. 



RAMOSIA RHODODENDRI (Beutenmiiller) 



Plate 19, Figure 108 



Sesia rhododendri Beutenmuller, Ent. News, vol. 20, p. 82, 1909. 

 Synanthcdon rhododendri McDunnough, Check list of the Lepidoptera of Canada 

 and the United States of America, pt. 2, No. 8730, 1939. 



Male. — Antennae black-violaceous. Labial palpi black above, yellow 

 beneath. Head black, frons lustrous green, face well marked with white. 

 Collar black on top, white at the sides and beneath. Thorax black with 

 steel-blue reflections and a broad patch of shiny white or pale yellow on 

 each side beneath. Abdomen lustrous steel blue or coppery black ; seg- 

 ments 2, 4, and 5 narrowly edged with yellow, at each side a narrow 

 yellow stripe from the base to the band on segment 2 ; on the underside 

 segments 3, 4, 5, and 6 whitish yellow; anal tuft broadly fan-shaped, 

 lustrous black, touched with yellow at the sides and yellow in the middle 

 beneath. Legs with anterior coxae shiny white or pale yellow, femora 

 steel blue or purple-blue, posterior tibiae pale yellow at the spurs, 

 violaceous-black between the spurs ; tarsi pale yellow, shaded with black 

 above. Forewing transparent, costa, narrow margin, discal mark and 

 inner veins violaceous-black; outer margin between the veins golden 

 yellow, fringes rusty black ; beneath costa heavily scaled with yellow, 

 otherwise as above. Hindwing transparent, narrowly margined with 

 shiny black, fringes paler, a mixture of black and yellow. 



Female. — Like the male, but with abdominal segments 2, 4, and 

 5 more broadly banded with yellow and the short, rounded anal tuft 

 heavily mixed with pale yellow inwardly from the sides. 



Expanse : Both sexes, 10 to 15 mm. 



Distribution. — Atlantic Coast States, Pennsylvania to Rhode Island. 



Type. — In the American Museum of Natural History. From Chelten- 

 ham, Pa. 



Remarks. — The rhododendron borer, one of the smallest of North 

 American Aegeriidae, is capable of inflicting serious injury to Rhodo- 

 dendron and occasionally also to mountain-laurel (Kalmia latifolia) 

 when the latter grows in association with Rhododendron. The species 

 was not recognized as of economic importance until after its description 

 in 1909 based on examples received from Cheltenham, Pa. While pre- 



