CLEAR-WING MOTHS OF FAMILY AEGERIIDAE 53 



mark, and, very slightly, between the veins at outer margin. Hindwing 

 transparent, margined with a thin black line ; fringes short, grayish black. 



Female. — Larger and with a heavier body than the male. Margin of the 

 forewing considerably broadened by a mixture of violaceous and golden- 

 yellow scales on and between the veins ; discal mark also broader, heavily 

 edged with golden yellow outwardly ; beneath, costa and veins yellow from 

 wing base to beyond discal mark and violaceous-black at outer margin; 

 fringes broad, dull black. Hindwing transparent, with margins violaceous- 

 black and fringes broad, dull black. Abdomen clearly banded on segments 

 2, 4, and 6 with pale yellow or sordid white and in some examples also 

 with indications of a band on segment 1 ; the band on segment 4 encircling 

 the body ; worn examples showing a scattering of pale scales on abdomen 

 beneath, insufficient to define the band ; the short, blunt anal tuft in some 

 examples yellow, slightly mixed with black in the middle and more heavily 

 at the sides, and in other examples mostly black mixed with sordid white. 



Expanse : Male 18 mm., female 20 to 24 mm. 



Distribution. — Mountains of Arizona. 



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



Remarks. — C. tecta is a mistletoe stem borer ; it attacks Phoradendron 

 orhicidatiun, occurring on live oak, in Arizona. In appearance, structure, 

 and habits it is associated closely with C. phoradendri, the mistletoe borer 

 in Texas. Its favorite habitat is groves of old live oaks supporting well- 

 established colonies of the mistletoe, usually at considerable elevations in 

 mountainous regions. In such situations the mistletoe attains a large size, 

 growing in dense clusters with thick, brittle stems, firmly anchored on 

 branches, usually too high to reach. Aside from the aegeriid borer, many 

 other kinds of insects are attracted to the plants. Old stems are riddled 

 with the larval galleries of cerambycid and rhynchophorous beetles, sub- 

 sequently serving wasps and bees for rearing their broods and various 

 other insects which prey upon the inhabitants or utilize the galleries as 

 places of refuge. 



The collecting of material for rearing proved arduous. Clusters of 

 mistletoe on high branches were brought down by shots from a rifle. From 

 cuttings containing larvae and pupae of the aegeriid borer, one to three in 

 a stem, taken in the Santa Rita Mountains, March and April 1937, no 

 moths emerged. On a previous visit to the same region, July 26. 1925, a 

 freshly emerged female, still near its exit on a stem was captured. Mistle- 

 toe on Celtis in the Santa Rita Mountains also contained larvae of an 

 aegeriid borer, which has not yet been reared to the adult stage. 



To the 2 male types of C. tecta from Prescott, Ariz., collected in 1882, 

 13 more examples have been added in the course of years, all captured, not 

 reared, specimens from widely separated regions. The collection records 

 probably indicate a much prolonged season rather than a 2-brooded species. 

 The data for these specimens are as follows : One male, Jerome, Yavapai 



