68 BULLETIN 190, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Distribution. — Eastern and Midwestern States, Appalachian Mountains 

 in the South. 



Type. — Male from Ithaca, N. Y. In ihe American Museum of Natural 

 History. 



Remarks. — Cabinet specimens invariably become greasy and the color 

 markings obscured. Even immersion in benzene or other chemical agents 

 does not always restore the natural colors. This may explain the in- 

 accuracy of Beutenmiiller's description and colored illustration. 



C. ithacae easil}- can be, and frequently has been, confused with Thamno- 

 sphecia pyri and T. scitula because of superficial resemblance. For 

 definite determination, differences in venation and in the genitalia are 

 more dependable. Veins 10 and 11 in the forewing of T. pyri are separate, 

 the sacculus ridge of the male genitalia is armed with strong spines in a 

 row not reaching the margin of harpe, and the vinculum is short ; whereas 

 in C. ithacae veins 10 and 1 1 are coincident, the sacculus ridge bears flat, 

 bifurcated scales connecting near the margin of harpe with a pocket of 

 smaller, paler scales, and the vinculum is slender and long. The food plant 

 of C. ithacae is oxeye, Heliopsis helimitholdes, the larvae boring in the 

 crown roots and lower parts of the stems, where they pupate early in the 

 summer, having previously filled the galleries with frass and constructed 

 a silk-lined case behind a thinly covered circular exit. The moths are at 

 large from late June to August. One female is labeled : Chicago, 111., 

 August 18, 1907, bred from sneezeweed, Heleniiim autumnale by Hy. Bird. 



Records in United States National Museum: Reared series, Ithaca, 

 N. Y. (type locality), males and females, July 29- August 5, 1930 (A. E. 

 Brower and Engelhardt) ; Clearfield, Pa., males and females, July 14- 

 August 20, 1923 (N. McMurray). Captured specimens, Falls Church, 

 Va., one male, July 20, 1914 (C. Heinrich) ; Montgomery County, Md., 

 June 20, 1914, one female (W. T. Davis) ; Glencarlyn, Va., one female, 

 June 6, 1910 (F. Knap) ; Onaga, Kans., one male, June 27, 1922 (Creve- 

 ceur) ; La Fayette, Ind., July 3; Balsam, N. C, one male, July 20, 1911 

 (A. F. Braun) ; Forest Park, Chicago, 111., one female, July 11, 1915 

 (E. Beer). 



CARMENTA AUREOPURPUREA (Hy. Edwards) 



Aegeria (?) aureopurpura Hy. Edwards, Bull. Brooklyn Ent. Soc, vol. 3, p. 72, 1880. 

 Sesia amcopurpurea Beutenmijller, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. 8, p. 137, 



1896; Mem. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. 1, pt. 6, p. 296, pi. 32, fig. ii 



(male), 1901. 

 Synmithedon aiircopurpurea McDunnough, Check list of the Lepidoptera of Canada 



and the United Slates of America, pt. 2, No. 8728, 1939. 



Male. — Antennae black, broadly white near the tips. Labial palpi yellow. 

 Head black. Collar yellow. Thorax brownish black, patagia striped with 

 bright yellow. Abdomen lustrous blue and coppery black, segments 1, 2, 

 4, 6, and 7 narrowly edged with pale yellow. Anal tuft fan-shaped, 



